Mind Harvest Press in the News!

Always a friend to my writing career and other endeavors, this week longtime local alt weekly Free Times printed a few kind words about my small publishing company and our first release from another author.

After a Near-death Experience, Bentz Kirby Dumped Law and Took Up Poetry

by Rodney Welch

For most of his adult life, Bentz Kirby has pursued a bi-vocational course: arguing court cases by day, playing music (either solo or with his jam band Alien Carnival) at night.

There’s no question which he preferred.

Beautiful cover for Bentz Kirby’s DREAM WORK by Marc Cardwell (marccardwell.com)

“I can unequivocally say I hated just about every minute of it,” he says of his years practicing law.

He worked all over the map — commercial litigation, insurance, personal injury, real estate, bankruptcy, Social Security and the rare criminal case, never staying in any area long enough to distinguish himself. The good days were when he felt worthwhile, like representing people suckered by consumer loan scams.

“What I did like about it was when you could actually help somebody that needed help,” Kirby offers. “That’s especially true with bankruptcy and Social Security, which is why I gravitated to that towards the end.”

Still, he kept up both jobs until he died.

That premature event came six years ago, when he and his wife May were driving from Travelers Rest, where they had just attended a family reunion, to Westminster, where he was intent on visiting his late brother’s memorial stone. He was listening to the University of South Carolina-Tennessee football game on the radio when he started feeling light-headed, pulled off to the side of the road, and was barely able to tell his wife to take him to the hospital when he slumped over at the wheel, falling victim to Sudden Cardiac Death Syndrome.

Read the rest of Bentz’s inspiring story at the Free Times. Thanks again to Rodney and the publishers for supporting local indie artists with wonderful coverage like this! Columbia, SC locals are also encouraged to join us on Tuesday, November 13, at the White Mule music club in Five Points to celebrate Bentz’s poetry.

Bentz lays down some hot licks at the 2017 edition of JerryFest, a local festival devoted to the music of Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia Band)