Alan Bernheimer (born 1948 in New York City) is an American poet, often associated with the San Francisco Language poets and the New York School poets.[1]
He attended Horace Mann School, and graduated in 1970 from Yale College, where he became friends with poets Steve Benson, Kit Robinson, Rodger Kamenetz, and Alex Smith and studied literature with A. Bartlett Giamatti and Harold Bloom and poetry with Ted Berrigan, Peter Schjeldahl, and Bill Berkson. He was a member of Manuscript Society in his senior year.
He continued his association with the New York School poets and the St. Mark's Poetry Project for several years, and moved to San Francisco in 1976, where through Benson and Robinson he met other writers—such as Rae Armantrout, Carla Harryman, Lyn Hejinian, Tom Mandel, Ted Pearson, Bob Perelman, Ron Silliman, and Barrett Watten—who would soon become known as the San Francisco Language poets.[2] Bernheimer wrote and performed for Poets Theater,[3] and produced and hosted the radio program of new writing by poets, "In the American Tree" on KPFA from 1979 to 1980.[4] He produces a photo portrait gallery of poets reading on flickr
Bernheimer worked as a corporate communications executive for Bay Area technology and solar companies.[5] He is married to Melissa Riley, a former San Francisco public librarian and freedom-of-information activist.
