Local Author Spotlight: Dennis Noyes

More than two decades of storytelling from Borrego Springs

For more than two decades, Dennis Noyes and his wife, Heidi, have called Borrego Springs home. Noyes continues a life shaped by words, racing, travel, and storytelling.

Known especially in Spain for his decades covering the MotoGP World Championship, Noyes built an international reputation as a motorcycling journalist, former racer, road tester, and television commentator. But alongside that fast-paced career, he continued pursuing another lifelong passion: fiction writing.

Words and storytelling have always been central to his life. His father wrote for Stars and Stripes, while his mother was a linguistics professor at Purdue University. Even as a teenager growing up in central Illinois, Noyes found himself torn between two passions: racing and writing.

That passion for writing earned him the Atlantic Monthly Annual Writing Contest for Students in 1966 and a scholarship to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. His early career included reporting for a daily newspaper in Caracas, Venezuela, teaching English in Guatemala, and eventually building a life and career in Spain.

In Spain, Noyes became both a national championship-winning motorcycle racer and a respected motorcycle road tester for Solo Moto and Motociclismo magazines. Over the years, he traveled internationally covering the biggest names in Grand Prix motorcycle racing while becoming one of the most recognizable voices in motorcycle racing commentary.

The Noyes family story also includes his son, Kenny Noyes, who followed in his father’s  tracks.

Kenny made his world championship debut in 2010 and won the Spanish national title in 2014. After a serious racing accident, Kenny turned to writing as part of his recovery, later publishing From Racer to Survivor: A Memoir. In the book, he shares his journey from competing on the racetrack to facing the challenges of recovery from a traumatic brain injury. Dennis and Kenny also co-wrote a book together, drawing from their shared years as journalists and racers.

Dennis Noyes Brings a Lifetime of Storytelling to Fiction

Dennis Noyes’ own debut novel, Yonders, Illinois, published in 2023. brings decades of experience, observation, humor, and storytelling into a suspenseful and deeply layered work of fiction.

The novel centers on a decades-old triple homicide in a small Midwestern town and follows the lingering effects of the crime across generations. Spanning from 1959 to 1998, the story unfolds through multiple perspectives, including Police Chief Buster Lawton and Keelan Putnam, the longtime suspect in the murders. More than a traditional mystery, the novel explores memory, justice, community, and the lasting impact of unresolved events.

Reviewers have praised the novel’s atmosphere, emotional depth, and richly developed characters. Kirkus Reviews described the book as “an absorbing moral drama with great depth.”

Noyes has said one of the best things about being a writer is “realizing you are not alone. The muses are real.” His advice to aspiring writers reflects the same thoughtful approach to storytelling: rules may be broken, but only when the story truly requires it.

From Illinois to Venezuela, Spain, and finally Borrego Springs, Dennis Noyes has lived a life shaped by storytelling, travel, racing, and curiosity. With Yonders, Illinois, he adds another chapter to an already remarkable journey.

Learn more at dennis-noyes.com.



Learn More About Borrego Springs