Benjamin Alire Saenz is an award-winning American poet, novelist, and essayist. He was born in 1954 in El Paso, Texas, and is of Mexican-American heritage. Saenz is best known for his works of fiction, which often explore themes of identity, family, and the complexities of life in the American Southwest. His novels, such as Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and The Inexplicable Logic of My Life, have earned him numerous accolades, including the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Stonewall Book Award. Saenz’s poetry is equally acclaimed, and his collections of poems, such as Heaven and Earth and Everything We’ve Lost, have been praised for their lyrical beauty and emotional depth. Saenz is also a professor of creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he continues to inspire and mentor a new generation of writers.