Born in Houston, Moser attended high school in Texas and France before graduating from Brown University with a degree in History. He briefly studied Chinese and Portuguese. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Utrecht University.

He is the New Books Columnist for Harper's Magazine, a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, and the author of a biography of the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, Why This World. He discovered the books of Clarice Lispector while studying Portuguese-language literature. He fell in love with her and her books immediately. He compares her to Kafka and Spinoza. His book was nominated for the National Books Critics Circle Award.

He has published translations from the Dutch, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. He speaks six languages in addition to these.

Benjamin Moser, Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, Oxford University Press (2009)/Haus Publishing Limited, ISBN 978-0195385564 (US), 978-1906598426 (UK)