Benjamin Alire Sáenz (born August 16, 1954) is an American poet, novelist, and writer of children's books.

Early 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

Poetry

Short stories

Novels

Young-adult novels

Children's books

Anthologies