Bernard Turner was born in Chicago and educated in the Chicago Public School system. He studied German as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and attended graduate school at the University of Chicago. Mr. Turner has been a teacher of Language Arts (ELA), German and Spanish in middle school and high school and worked in educational publishing in sales and marketing until December 2014.
In 2002, Mr. Turner founded Highlights of Chicago Press with the publication of A View of Bronzeville, a neighborhood tour guide that focuses on the important institutions and people that made Bronzeville a great neighborhood. Other publications include The Windies’ City—Chicago’s Historical Hidden Treasures, Chicago Neighborhoods with Flavor—Getting Out of the Loop, and a social studies book for elementary grades called Our Chicago—People and Places. Bernard co-wrote and published Tate and His Historic Dream, a Phillis Wheatley Award Finalist.