Hosts, Tim Z. Hernández and Daniel Chacón get together to talk to award-winning American poet, novelist and writer Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
His first book of poems, Calendar of Dust, won an American Book Award in 1992. His first novel, Carry Me Like Water was a saga that brought together the Victorian novel and the Latin American tradition of magic realism and received much critical attention. His novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, a coming-of-age story about two Mexican-American boys growing up in El Paso, Texas, was a Printz Honor Book, the Stonewall Award winner, the Pura Belpré Award winner, the Lambda Literary Award winner, and a finalist for the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award. Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (2021) is the well-awaited sequel.
Benjamin Alire Sáenz lives and works in El Paso, Texas.
Program Originally aired on February 27, 2022