Benjamin Alire Sáenz, first Latino winner of PEN/Faulkner award, dies aged 71

Celebrated writer, poet and novelist for young adults drew upon his sexuality and life on US southern border

Benjamin Alire Sáenz, an award-winning fiction writer and poet who drew upon his sexuality and his life on the southern border, has died at age 71. He was the first Latino to win the PEN/Faulkner prize.

Sáenz, who produced a story collection that won the PEN/Faulkner prize and a young adult novel that received acclaim from readers and reviewers and condemnation from censors, died on 28 July in El Paso, Texas , after a lengthy illness, according to a spokesperson for Simon & Schuster.

Sáenz, born in Old Picacho, New Mexico, was an ordained Catholic priest who eventually left the order and came out as gay. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, the story of two Mexican American boys falling in love, was published in 2012 and received a pair of citations for outstanding LGBTQ+ literature: a Stonewall book award and the Lambda literary award.

In a tribute posted to the late author’s Instagram account on Saturday, Sáenz is described as a writer whose words ensured visibility and belonging among people who have been pushed into the margins of society.

“Ben believed that words could build bridges where walls once stood. He believed that every life mattered, every story deserved to be told, and every soul longed to be seen,” the post reads. “He wrote of lonely boys who discovered they were worthy of love. He wrote of deserts, rivers, family, memory, grief, forgiveness, and hope…But more than anything, he wrote toward the light.”

This sentiment was echoed by playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, who narrated the audio edition of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe , helped produce the 2023 film adaptation, and lent his voice to the audiobook for Sáenz’s sequel novel Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World.

“Heartbroken by the passing of [Benjamin Alire Sáenz]. Forever grateful he trusted me to narrate both audiobooks of Aristotle & Dante’s adventures…Condolences to his galaxy of friends and family. Rest easy, maestro,” Miranda wrote in an Instagram post the day after Sáenz’s death.

The film adaptation’s director, Aitch Alberto, also posted a tribute to the man whom she described as more than just an author.

“He was a friend, a believer in me, and one of the greatest supporters of my work and my voice. He trusted me with Ari and Dante, with characters and a world that came from somewhere so deeply personal to him, and that trust changed the course of my life,” she wrote.

Though Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is considered a part of the LGBTQIA+ literary canon, the love story at its center led to its temporary removal from a school district in Granbury, Texas, and to bans in Russia and in Belarus.

Sáenz’s other books included the poetry collection The Book of What Remains and such adult novels as In Perfect Light and Names on a Map.

He received the PEN/Faulkner award in 2013 for Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, a story collection set in El Paso, and across the border in Juarez, Mexico. Starting in the 1990s, he taught for decades at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he had received a master’s degree in creative writing.

He served as chair of the school’s creative writing department before retiring in 2016.

Next month, Simon & Schuster will publish When the World Was Happy, which draws in part upon the loss of his niece in 1990 in a bowling alley shooting in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Sáenz was reminded of that tragedy by the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

“That was when I decided that this was not gonna leave me alone until I wrote about it,” he wrote in an author’s note shared by the publisher. “I wanted to write a book about how people survive and live through something as senseless as this.”