Carol Bergé (1928–2006) was an American poet, highly active in the literary, performing and visual arts renaissance of the 1960s and 1970s in New York City.
In the 1980s a scandal in academia and her choice to fictionalize it in her 1984 book Secrets, Gossip and Slander cost her teaching jobs as well as support from the publishing industry.
Active in the creative renaissance of the 1960s, Bergé performed with Paul Blackburn, Roberts Blossom, William S. Burroughs, Philip Corner, Gregory Corso, Fielding Dawson, Diane DiPrima, Allen Ginsberg, LeRoi Jones, Tuli Kupferberg, Denise Levertov, Jackson Mac Low, Taylor Mead, Rochelle Owens, Simon Perchik, Charles Plymell, Ishmael Reed, Jerome Rothenberg, Ed Sanders, Carolee Schneemann, Hubert Selby Jr., Diane Wakoski, et al.
Her poetry was widely published; she was part of the Fluxus multimedia activities; she lists her early influences as Malinowski, Benedict, Mead, Kluckhohn, Freuchen, Twain, Dickens, Shakespeare, the Brontes, DuMaurier, Poe (the stories), Conan Doyle, Saki, Chaucer and Browning.
In 1960, she co-opened Five Cities Gallery in Manhattan’s East Village; next door was Tenth Street Coffeehouse, where the Light Years poets began their readings.
She attended New York University and Columbia, studying social sciences and fine arts for almost a decade, dismissing the option of a degree program.