Benny Arnas was born and raised in Lubuklinggau, West Sumatra. He was awarded the Auckland University of Technology Cultural Activist Program grant (2016) and had written 31 books. Since 2020, he has developed "Story by 5", a formula for writing fast, pithy, & measurable stories. This formula led him to win the National Novel Writing Competition about Rasulullah in 2021. In the same year he received the Nugra Jasa Dharma, the highest award in the field of literacy from the National Library, for his dedication to fostering a reading and writing culture in Indonesia.