Keith Benoist was born in Fukuoka-Ken, Japan, 16 July, 1955, on the 10th anniversary of the first Atomic Detonation at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Hardly a coincidence.
He was delivered onto a pool table at the Officers' Club, behind the 8 ball. Literally.
He spent his formative years in his father’s hometown, Natchez, Mississippi. The long silver thread of the Mississippi River, a favorite aspect, became for Benoist both a vanguard against the outside world, while in the same instant, a time capsule that tied his world to the one beyond. "Go," his father once told him, with a broad sweep of the arm, "and discover something real, out there. You can always return, once you've found it."
A wandering writer and photographer, he takes his inspiration from nature. A poet since the age of six; "Up the Tree, And Down the Trunk, A squirrel Went Tumbling, Like a Drunk", he has failed to inspire the mainstream, though still has delusions of grandeur.
Keith is left handed, which can account for his port side list whenever he paddles a kayak, which he does frequently.
In 2002, Kayakmississippi was born, as an adjunct to Benoist's relentless search for a living leviathan, the Zeuglodon. This pastime has evolved into what now, by congressional decree, is known as the Phatwater Kayak Challenge.
