SOURCE: “An Autobiographical Interview with Charles Bernstein,” in Boundary 2, Vol. 23, No. 3, Fall, 1996, pp. 21-43.

In the following interview, Bernstein discusses his family background, his childhood, formative influences and intellectual awakening, his Harvard education, and early years as a poet and founder of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E.

[Glazier:] My first question is one that has been on my mind for quite some time. Reading your work, there seems to be a presence of your early life in your writing, certainly from the point of view of language and surface texture. Yet not much has been published on this subject. You were born in New York, correct?

[Bernstein:] Yes, at Doctor’s Hospital, Upper East Side, Manhattan, on April 4, 1950. As my father had it on the announcement: “Sherry Bernstein, Labor; Herman Bernstein, Management.”

I’d also be interested in hearing about your parents. Certainly the idea...