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Author Benjamin Alire Sáenz, First Latino PEN/Faulkner Winner, Dies

8/4/2026

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Summary

Story summary

Author Benjamin Alire Sáenz died at 71 on July 28 in El Paso, Texas after a long illness.
He was the first Latino to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2013.
His 2012 novel “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” won a Lambda Literary Award.
The novel was adapted into a 2023 film narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
It was banned in Russia and Belarus.

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Story summary

Author Benjamin Alire Sáenz died at 71 on July 28 in El Paso, Texas after a long illness.
He was the first Latino to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2013.
His 2012 novel “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” won a Lambda Literary Award.
The novel was adapted into a 2023 film narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
It was banned in Russia and Belarus.