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

[1] 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.

[2] After 15 years of marriage to his wife, an El Paso family court judge, he came out as gay, and they filed for divorce in 2009.

[3] In 2013, Benjamin Alire Sáenz became the first Latino to win the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Book Award for Fiction with Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club.

[4] On October 29, 2022, Sáenz received the Inaugural Hummingbird Award in Literary Arts from the Tulsa City-County Library.