Sáenz, Benjamin Alire (1954-…), is an American poet, novelist, and children’s author. He has won praise for his explorations of Mexican American life in the United States. Sáenz received the 2013 Pura Belpré Award for his young adult novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2012). The annual award is given to a Latino or Latina author and to a Latino or Latina illustrator “whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.” In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, two 15-year-old Hispanic boys meet at a swimming pool during the summer of 1987. The boys form a friendship that changes their lives. Sáenz also wrote the sequel Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (2021).
Sáenz’s poetry and fiction are examples of Chicano literature. A Chicano is a person of Mexican descent who was born in the United States. Sáenz’s first published work was the poetry collection Calendar of Dust (1991). The collection explores one of Sáenz’s favorite themes, the strengths and weaknesses of Chicano family life. His later collections include Dark and Perfect Angels (1995), Elegies in Blue (2002), Dreaming the End of War (2006), and The Book of What Remains (2010).
Sáenz’s novels include Carry Me Like Water (1995), The House of Forgetting (1997), In Perfect Light (2005), and Names on a Map (2008). His short stories were collected in Flowers for the Broken (1992) and Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club (2012).
Sáenz has written the bilingual children’s books A Gift from Papa Diego (1998), Grandma Fina and Her Wonderful Umbrellas (1999), A Perfect Season for Dreaming (2008), and The Dog Who Loved Tortillas (2009). He has also written the young adult novels Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood (2004), He Forgot to Say Goodbye (2008), and Last Night I Sang to the Monster (2009).
Sáenz was born on Aug. 16, 1954, in Old Picacho, New Mexico, near Las Cruces. He earned a B.A. degree in humanities and philosophy from St. Thomas Seminary in Denver in 1977 and an M.A. degree in theology from the University of Louvain in Belgium in 1980. For several years, he served as a priest in El Paso, Texas, before leaving the priesthood.
Sáenz returned to school and earned an M.A. degree in creative writing from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 1988. He also attended the University of Iowa and won a poetry fellowship at Stanford University in 1988 and 1989. Sáenz later taught creative writing at UTEP for more than 20 years before he retired from teaching.
