Benjamin Alire Sáenz


Benjamin Alire Sáenz is an American poet, novelist, and writer of children's books.
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Life and education

Sáenz was raised near Las Cruces, New Mexico. He earned a BA in Humanities and Philosophy from St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, Colorado and a MA in creative writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. He continues to live and work in El Paso, Texas. After 15 years of marriage to his wife, an El Paso family court judge, he came out as gay, and they filed for divorce in 2009.
Sáenz was 54 when he came out. In an interview, he confirmed that he had struggled with this topic for a long time and that he saw writing as a way to overcome it.
In 2013, Benjamin Alire Sáenz became the first Latino to win the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Book Award for Fiction with Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club.
On October 29, 2022, Sáenz received the Inaugural Hummingbird Award in Literary Arts from the Tulsa City-County Library. The event was hosted by the Tulsa City-County Library and the Hispanic Resource Center.

Awards

Works

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Poetry

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Short stories

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Novels

Carry Me Like Water, Hyperion, 1995
  • *En el tiempo de la Luz, Rayo/HarperCollins 2006
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Young-adult novels

Last Night I Sang to the Monster, Cinco Puntos Press 2009Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012The Inexplicable Logic of My Life, Clarion Books, 2017Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021

Children's books

A Perfect Season for Dreaming, Cinco Puntos Press 2008.The Dog Who Loved Tortillas, Cinco Puntos Press 2009

Anthologies

  • "To the Desert," "Resurrections," Twentieth Century American Poetry, edited by Dana Gioia, McGraw Hill