 Berssenbrugge taught at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, where she co-founded the internal literary journal "Tyuonyi".Traveling frequently to New York City, Berssenbrugge became engaged in the rich cultural flourishing of the abstract art movement, and was influenced by New York School poets John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, James Schuyler and Anne Waldman, and then the Language poets, including Charles Bernstein, as well as artist Susan Bee.She later joined the contributing editorial board for the literary journal "Conjunctions".