Edelman has taught at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York, Santa Monica College, West Los Angeles College, Long Beach City College, and UCLA. Currently, he is a professor of English at Glendale College where he edits Eclipse, a literary journal. He has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships from the U. S. Department of Education and the L.B.J. School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin to conduct literary research in India, Egypt, Nigeria, and Poland.

Crossing the Hackensack, Edelman's first book of poetry, was published by Prometheus Press in 1993. Susan Heeger, in the Los Angeles Times, wrote, "Edelman has written movingly about the cultural and emotional limbo of living abroad." Michael Logue, of Chapman University's Steel and Ivy Poetry Series, commented, "Edelman bridges the two worlds of scholarly poetry and the oral traditions of street poetry to create a rich work of art which touches the reader on many levels. His poetry appeals not only to the intellect but also to the emotions."

Edelman's second book, Under Damaris' Dress, was published by Lightning Publications in 1996. Mike Cluff, in Inside English, wrote, "Edelman's poetry shows an artist at work…his poetry is poignant, metaphoric and breathtaking." Cheri Davis Langdell, author of W.S. Merwin, commented, "Bart Edelman's poetry is true art. These beautiful, knowing poems are about loneliness, love and isolation, poems which have at their center a stillness as well as a strong presence." Stephen Minot, author of Three Genres, wrote "Edelman manages to catch our darkest fantasies, secrets and grudging loves with grace and wit. His poetry also honors love and the erotic…a very promising poet."

The Alphabet of Love, Edelman's third collection, was published by Red Hen Press in 1999. Oscar Mandel, author of Fundamentals of the Art of Poetry, wrote, "often humorous, always tender-hearted, Bart Edelman is the best kind of poet we have…This entire collection of shimmering pearls sings to a multitude of grateful readers." Jo Ray McCuen, editor of Readings for Writers, commented, "All of the tightly woven, passionate lines in Bart Edelman's The Alphabet of Love enter your heart where they cast a hypnotic spell that leaves you with new insights about love, hate, and despair…Edelman has made a significant contribution to contemporary poetry." Miriam Sagan wrote "Bart Edelman's are elegant lean poems that penetrate directly to the heart of human life."

Edelman's fourth volume of poetry is The Gentle Man, also published by Red Hen Press, in 2001. Kate Gray, in the Clackamas Literary Review, wrote "Men's poetry has grown into a gentle art…Perhaps it was Robert Bly who called men inside themselves. Certainly it was Billy Collins and Li-Young Lee who challenged men to notice their vulnerable natures and the intimacy of their relationships. In this fine new tradition lies Bart Edelman. In his latest collection, The Gentle Man, he captures the complexity of the roles men play today…" William Heyen commented, "Not quite like any other poetry I've read…Bart Edelman's complex and inexhaustible song in The Gentle Man concerns his admission that 'What I really know about love / Could never amount to much.' …Reading this unexpected, unusual, troubling book, I kept thinking of Emerson's ‘Up again, old heart!' And my deep anxieties were answered with poetry."

Edelman’s most recent volume of poetry is The Last Mojito, also from Red Hen Press (2005). Ryan Van Cleave, editor of The Longman Anthology of Poetry, wrote, "The Last Mojito weaves passionate portraits into a cohesive enthralling collection. These poems represent an astonishing range of vision and connect to the tradition of American literature." David L. Ulin, Book Editor of the Los Angeles Times, commented, "Bart Edelman is one of my favorite poets – spare and smart, lyrical but never sentimental about the mechanics of love. In his new collection, The Last Mojito, he invokes figures both public and private to get at the 'long drawn out sorrow' of our silent hearts. Edelman is an elegist, writing laments for our daily losses and capitulations, yet seeing hope where, by all rights, it should not exist. In the process, he continually exposes the difficult dynamics of what it means to be human.”

Edelman frequently appears at many of Los Angeles' best known poetry venues: Midnight Special, Skylight, Dutton's, and Vroman's, as well as Barnes & Noble, Crown and Borders bookstores. Audiences have heard him read his work, conduct poetry workshops, and address faculty and administrators at conferences across the country at Clackamas Community College, Riverside City College, Santa Ana College, East Los Angeles College, Caltech, Cal Poly/San Luis Obispo, Chapman University, American River College, Napa Valley College, Tomball College, University of Houston, University of Texas at Austin, Des Moines Area Communtiy College, Emporia State University, Florida Community College, Old Dominion University, Clemson University, Sussex Community College, Bergen Community College, Hofstra University, and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Edelman was Poet-in-Residence at Monroe College of the State University of New York at Rochester.

Edelman's poetry has appeared in newspapers and literary journals. Recent anthology and textbook credits include City Light Books, Etruscan Press, Fountainhead Press, Harcourt Brace, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall/Pearson, Simon & Schuster, Thomson/Heinle, and The University of Iowa Press.

He lives in Pasadena.