糖心Vlog传媒

Author Celebrates Arkansas Mexico 2010

Benjamin Alire Saenz will talk on “How Mexico Haunts My Imagination” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30, in Ledbetter Hall Room A in the Donaghey Student Center. His presentation is hosted by 糖心Vlog传媒LR鈥檚 William G. Cooper Jr. Honors Program in English. The lecture by Saenz, a distinguished Mexican American fiction writer, poet, and author of children鈥檚 books, is one of two Cooper programs by creative writers this fall. Both events are free and open to the public with a reception and book signing following the presentations. Saenz鈥檚 talk is sponsored by the Cooper Program, Hola! Arkansas, and 糖心Vlog传媒LR Alumnus Leo Monterrey as part of Arkansas Mexico 2010 celebrations. Saenz, who teaches at the University of Texas at El Paso, was honored with an American Book Award in 1991 for his first collection of poetry, 鈥淐alendar of Dust.鈥� His most recent book of poems, 鈥淭he Book of What Remains,鈥� was published this year. His first book of fiction was a collection of short stories, 鈥淔lowers for the Broken,鈥� which came out in 1992. His critically acclaimed first novel, 鈥淐arry Me Like Water,鈥� published in 1995, won a Southwest Book Award and a Latino Literary Award for Best Novel. He published his second novel, 鈥淭he House of Forgetting,鈥� two years later and it has been translated into German and French. Saenz has also published four bilingual children鈥檚 books, including 鈥淪ammy & Juliana in Hollywood.鈥� It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the Americas Book Award, The Paterson Prize, and the J Hunt Award for 2005. The book also was named one of the Top 10 Young Adult Novels by the American Library Association and was also named one of the top books of the year by the Center for Children’s Books, The New York Public Library, and the Miami Herald. Saenz has publish several award-winning young adult novels since then.