Benjamin Alire Sáenz

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

Life
Sáenz was born at Old Picacho, New Mexico, the fourth of seven children, and was raised on a small farm near Mesilla, New Mexico. He graduated from Las Cruces High School in 1972. That fall, he entered St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, Colorado where he received a B.A. degree in Humanities and Philosophy in 1977. He studied Theology at the University of Louvain in Leuven, Belgium from 1977 to 1981. He was a priest for a few years in El Paso, Texas before leaving the order.

In 1985, he returned to school, and studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he earned an M.A. degree in Creative Writing. He then spent a year at the University of Iowa as a Ph.D student in American Literature. A year later, he was awarded a Wallace E. Stegner fellowship. While at Stanford University under the guidance of Denise Levertov, he completed his first book of poems, Calendar of Dust,. He entered the Ph.D. program at Stanford and continued his studies for two more years. Before completing his Ph.D., he moved back to the border and began teaching at the University of Texas at El Paso in the bilingual MFA program.

In 2005, he curated a show of photographs by Julian Cardona.

He continues to teach in the Creative Writing Department at the University of Texas at El Paso.

He is the co-host, with Daniel Chacón of the KTEP-produced radio and online show on writers and writing, "Words on a Wire"

Writing
His first novel, Carry Me Like Water was a saga that brought together the Victorian novel and the Latin American tradition of magic realism and received much critical attention.

Review of Carry Me Like Water, Blogcritics: "This lush and touching novel by Benjamin Alire Saenz, a series of interconnected stories of a most amazing cast of characters, is simply astounding....All in all, it is an amazing story, a commentary on life, on the issues that plague us today like border crossings, prejudice, AIDS, being Chicano, being gay, love, death and fear. The dialogue is crisp and interesting, each chapter seamlessly flows like the river into the next. It is poetic, which is not surprising considering Saenz is an eloquent Chicano poet. As in his other book, In Perfect Light, he has created a masterpiece of imagery, color and a unique and beautiful story."

In The Book of What Remains (Copper Canyon Press, 2010), his fifth book of poems, he writes to the core truth of life's ever-shifting memories. Set along the Mexican border, the contrast between the desert's austere beauty and the brutality of border politics mirrors humanity's capacity for both generosity and cruelty.

Recognition
His first book of poems, Calendar of Dust, won an American Book Award in 1992.

Awards

 * Wallace E. Stegner Fellowship, poetry
 * 1992 American Book Award, for Calendar of Dust
 * Lannan Poetry Fellowship 1993
 * Carry Me Like Water, Southwest Book Award 1996 (Border Regional Library Association)
 * Dark and Perfect Angels, Southwest Book Award 1996 (Border Regional Library Association)
 * Grandma Fina and Her Wonderful Umbrellas, Best Children's Book 2000, Texas Institute of Letters
 * Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, Americas Book Award, the Paterson Book Prize, the J Hunt Award, Finalist Los Angeles Book Prize, BBYA Top Ten Books for Young Adults
 * Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award, Southwest Book Award (Border Regional Library Association), Chicago Public Library, Best of the Best Books for Teens, New York Public Library Stuff for the Teen 2009, Commended Title, Americas Book Award 2009
 * A Perfect Season for Dreaming, Best Children's Book, Friends of the Austin Public Library 2008 (Texas Institute of Letters), Bank Street Best Children's Books of the Year 2008, Kirkus Review 2008 Notable Books for Children, Paterson Book Prize

Poetry

 * [http://books.google.com/books?id=WH30emVjv3cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Benjamin+Alire+Saenz&lr=&ei=M5kAS627K4_SNLqUlJAP#v=onepage&q=Benjamin%20Alire%20Saenz&f=false Elegies in Blue''. Cinco Puntos Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-938317-64-7
 * [http://books.google.com/books?id=WH30emVjv3cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Benjamin+Alire+Saenz&lr=&ei=M5kAS627K4_SNLqUlJAP#v=onepage&q=Benjamin%20Alire%20Saenz&f=false Elegies in Blue''. Cinco Puntos Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-938317-64-7
 * [http://books.google.com/books?id=WH30emVjv3cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Benjamin+Alire+Saenz&lr=&ei=M5kAS627K4_SNLqUlJAP#v=onepage&q=Benjamin%20Alire%20Saenz&f=false Elegies in Blue''. Cinco Puntos Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-938317-64-7

Novels

 * Carry Me Like Water. Hyperion, 1995.
 * En el tiempo de la Luz. Rayo/HarperCollins, 2006
 * En el tiempo de la Luz. Rayo/HarperCollins, 2006
 * En el tiempo de la Luz. Rayo/HarperCollins, 2006

Young-adult novels

 * Last Night I Sang to the Monster. Cinco Puntos Press 2009
 * Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. New York; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012
 * Last Night I Sang to the Monster. Cinco Puntos Press 2009
 * Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. New York; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012

Children's books

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

Anthologies

 * "The Unchronicled Death of Your Holy Father"; "Fences" in Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas-Mexican Literature (edited by Dagoberto Gilb). [[University of New Mexico Press], 2008. ISBN 978-0-8263-4126-6
 * An introduction to poetry (edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia). Pearson Longman, 2005. ISBN 978-0-321-20939-9
 * "To the Desert," "Resurrections," in Twentieth Century American Poetry (edited by Dana Gioia). McGraw-Hill, 2004. ISBN 0-07-240019-6