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LATINOPIA HERO BENJAMIN SÁENZ (August 16, 1954 – July 28, 2026)

by

Author Benjamin Sáenz.

Latinopia salutes Benjamin Sáenz ( August 16, 1954 – July 28, 2026), an American poet, novelist and writer of children’s books. Raised near the town of Las Cruces, New Mexico Saenz remained around the border area of Southern New Mexico and El Paso most of his life. 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 continued to live and work in El Paso, Texas. After 15 years of marriage to his wife, Saenz came out as a gay man and filed for divorce.

Benjamin was a transformative voice of the U.S.–Mexico borderlands, he wrote numerous poems, short stories, and novels including the poetry collections Calendar of Dust. Broken Moon Press. 1991; Dark and Perfect Angels. Cinco Puntos Press. 1995; Elegies in Blue. Cinco Puntos Press. 2002; Dreaming the End of War. Copper Canyon Press. 2006 and The Book of What Remains.
His novels included: Carry Me Like Water, Hyperion, 1995; The House of Forgetting. HarperCollins. 1997; In Perfect Light. HarperCollins. 2008; En el tiempo de la Luz, Rayo/HarperCollins 2006 and Names on a Map. Harper Perennial. 2008.
His children’s books included: A Gift from Papa Diego. Bt Bound. 1999; Grandma Fina and Her Wonderful Umbrellas. Illustrator Geronimo Garcia. Cinco Puntos Press. 2001; A Perfect Season for Dreaming, Cinco Puntos Press 2008 and The Dog Who Loved Tortillas, Cinco Puntos Press 2009.
In 2013, Benjamin Alire Sáenz became the first Latino to win the prestigious PEN/Faulkner 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 City of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
His other recognitions include:

Saenz’s literary works are archived at the Wittliff Collection in San Marcos, Texas. “Ben Sáenz was beloved across literary disciplines,” says Carrie Fountain, Wittliff Literary Curator, who grew up in his hometown and graduated from the same high school. “He was an incredible poet, a keen memoirist and essayist, and a spectacular young adult novelist who captured the experiences of queer kids with poignant depth and honestly. He will be missed far and wide, from the borderlands of his native Mesilla Valley and around the globe. Sáenz lived many lives in his 71 years, and the world is so much richer for his having been in it.”

Sáenz died on July 28, 2026, at the age of 71.

He was a true Latinopia Hero.

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This remembrance and accompanying photos were derived from material on Benjamin’s Wikipedia page, mortuary obituary and other public sources under the “fair use” proviso of the copyright law.