Renowned Latino author Benjamin Alire Sáenz dies at 71

Benjamin Alire Sáenz, an award-winning novelist and poet who drew on his experiences on the U.S.-Mexico border and his identity as a gay man, died at 71 in El Paso following a lengthy illness. He was the first Latino recipient of the PEN/Faulkner prize, winning in 2013 for his story collection set in El Paso and Juárez. His breakout young-adult novel, published in 2012, garnered a Stonewall Honors Book Award and a Lambda Literary Award, but also sparked censorship actions in Texas, Russia and Belarus.

The book’s audio version was narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who expressed deep sorrow online. Sáenz taught creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso for many years, chairing the department before retiring in 2016, and a posthumous work about surviving senseless violence is slated for release next month.