Steve Benson (born 1949 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American poet and performer.
Benson lives in Downeast Maine where he is a licensed psychologist in private practice.
During his college years, he was close to composer Humphrey Evans III, dramatist Evan McHale, actor Drew Denbaum, novelist Paul Grimes, and poets Kit Robinson, Alan Bernheimer, Michael Waltuch, John Alter, and David Wilk among others.
With Harryman and a number of other young poets including Ron Silliman, Lyn Hejinian, Barrett Watten, Kit Robinson, Tom Mandel, Alan Bernheimer, Rae Armantrout, Ted Pearson, Bob Perelman and others he was instrumental in creating Language Poetry, a new school of innovative writing that emerged in San Francisco, New York City, and other places during this period.
Benson has a BA from Yale and an MFA from the University of California at Irvine, as well as a PhD in psychology from the Wright Institute.