Joseph Bender

Joe Bender was born February 16th, 1985, in Winter Park, Florida, where his parents Ralph and Jane Bender raised him and his brothers John and Matt.

Joe graduated from Winter Park High School in 2003, and earned his Bachelor of Science degree for Horticultural Science from The University of Florida in 2009. In addition to horticulture, he is also enthusiastic about general biology, mycology, entomology, and ethnobotany.

Joe enjoys gardening, skateboarding, snowskating, and surfing, and currently resides in Dillon, Colorado. He loves to read epic poems, such as The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Inferno, and Paradise Lost. These books, along with The King James Version of The Holy Bible, strongly influenced the poetry in Joe’s epic poem Lost in an Idyll. Joe has surfed in El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama, and his experiences in those countries also helped inspire Lost in an Idyll.

Joe's father Ralph was born June 20th, 1946 Sewickley, PA, and at six months of age he moved with his parents to the late Panama Canal Zone where he lived until age 17. Following his father's death, Ralph moved to Florida with his mother and two sisters, attending Winter Park High School for his senior year. Ralph's stories about Panama give tropical America special significance in Joe's mind.

Joe also credits Terence and Dennis McKenna, and their true story in Terence's novel True Hallucinations, which was decisive in choosing the setting of Lost in an Idyll.