Called "a consummate poet" by Robert Creeley, Bernadette Mayer was bornin Brooklyn, New York, in 1945. A most prolific poet, her first bookwas published at the age of twenty-three. Many texts later shecontinues to write progressive poetry from her home in East Nassau, NewYork. For many years Mayer lived and worked on the Lower East Side ofManhattan where she was the Director of St. Mark's Poetry Project from1980-1984. Bernadette Mayer has received grants and awards from PENAmerican Center, The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Art, theNEA, The Academy of American Poets, and The American Academy of Artsand Letters.