Bernstein was born in New York City and studied at the Bronx High School of Science and Harvard College, graduating in 1972. His first book, Asylums was published in 1975. Together with Bruce Andrews he edited L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Magazine, which ran to 13 issues between 1978 and 1980. This was one of the most important outlets for L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry, and in 1984 he and Andrews published most of the contents of the 13 issues in The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book. During this period, Bernstein also published three more books of his own poetry: Parsing (1976), Shade (1978) and Poetic Justice (1979), while earning a living as a freelance editor.
Bernstein was one of the foremost theorists of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E group, and his two collections of essays, Content's Dream: Essays 1975 (1986) and A Poetics (1992) expound a position on poetry based on his close reading of the philosophy of Karl Marx and Ludwig Wittgenstein and the writings of Gertrude Stein, Louis Zukofsky, William Carlos Williams and others.
From 1989 to 1993, Bernstein was David Gray Professor of Poetry and Letters at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He was founder and Director of the Poetics Program at that university. He is also co-founder of The Electronic Poetry Center at Buffalo. He is currently Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania. Since 1980, he has published a further eighteen books of poetry, as well as editing a number of anthologies of prose and verse. Working with the composer Ben Yarmolinsky, he has written the librettos for five operas and has collaborated with a number of visual artists, including his wife, Susan Bee.Early Life and Work
Bernstein and Poetics
Recent Life and Works