Joseph Von Benedikt: Mormon Writer

Joseph von Benedikt is an outdoor writer and outdoorsman. He and his twin brother Aram Barsch von Benedikt were raised on a self-sustaining farm of over sixty acres near Boulder, Utah. In addition to the tasks of running the farm, Von Benedikt became skilled at gunsmithing, competitive shooting, hunting, rodeo, and bluegrass guitar. He spent nine years of his late teens and twenties guiding big game hunters.

Von Benedikt studied literature and writing at Brigham Young University and published several articles in hunting and shooting magazine while a student. He works as the field editor of Intermedia Outdoors where he is hunting editor for Shooting Times; western editor for Petersen's Hunting; and field editor for Rifleshooter, Handguns, Predator Nation, Wildfowl, and the Special Interest Division.

His first book for Gun Digest, Firearms for Personal Protection: Armed Defense for the New Gun Owner, won him the 2014 Carl Zeiss Outdoor Writer of the year. Mike Jensen, President of Carl Zeiss SBE, LLC, said of him: “He masterfully communicates with soulful insight, along with accurate and in-depth technical information that benefits his readers. His passion and appreciation for the outdoors resonates throughout all of his work. Quite simply, nobody deserves this prestigious award any more than this man does.”[1]

He was also awarded Republic Forge’s first “Build It to Win It” Media Contest in 2015.

Von Benedikt is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and his wife, artist Jenna von Benedikt, have lived in Los Angeles and central Illinois for his work, but now live with their children in Santaquin, Utah. He is the son of artist Wulf Barsch.