He was a student of Thomas Rabbitt in poetry and Barry Hannah in fiction, and classmate of Clark Powell: Our weekly workshops were simple - take the latest purple mimeographed worksheet of student's poems, and have everyone critique the poems.

Another student named John Bensko made a comment that broke everybody up: "This poem is a bit top-heavy.

He has been the Coordinator of the MFA program at the University of Memphis and was Director of the River City Writers Series for the 2005–2006 season.

Through the U of M Study Abroad Office, he launched a summer creative writing program at the University of Alicante, Spain.

A former resident of Memphis along with his Virginia-born wife Cary Holladay,[1] John Bensko was born in Birmingham, Alabama.