Benjamin Alire Sáenz, first Latino PEN/Faulkner winner, dies at 71

Benjamin Alire Sáenz, the first Latino writer to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, died on July 28, 2026, in El Paso, Texas, at 71, after a lengthy illness. Simon & Schuster confirmed his death. Sáenz won the 2013 prize for "Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club." His YA novel "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" earned Stonewall and Lambda awards. Simon & Schuster will publish his final book, "When the World Was Happy," next month.