SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 92
         WHEREAS, Benjamin Alire Sáenz of El Paso has been named the
  recipient of the 2023 Texas Medal of Arts Award for the Literary
  Arts by the Texas Cultural Trust; and
         WHEREAS, An acclaimed poet, novelist, and children's
  author, Benjamin Sáenz was born in New Mexico to a family with
  strong West Texas roots; his passions for learning and social
  justice led him to join the Catholic clergy, and he completed his
  bachelor's degree in humanities and philosophy at St. Thomas
  Seminary in Colorado and studied theology at the University of
  Louvain in Belgium; three years as a parish priest in El Paso
  taught him that his real calling was the literary life; and
         WHEREAS, Mr. Sáenz waited tables for a time to save up for
  graduate school; after earning a master's degree in creative
  writing from The University of Texas at El Paso, he embarked on
  fellowships at the University of Iowa and Stanford University;
  his first collection of poems, Calendar of Dust, received the
  American Book Award; in 1994, he returned to his beloved El Paso,
  joining the faculty of his alma mater and eventually becoming
  chair of the UTEP bilingual master of fine arts creative writing
  program; and
         WHEREAS, Uncommonly prolific, Mr. Sáenz has produced a
  wide-ranging body of work, including six volumes of poetry, four
  novels, two collections of short stories, four bilingual
  children's books, and five young adult novels; teachers across
  the country value his writing for its powerful representation of
  the Latino youth experience, and his coming-of-age love story,
  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, became
  an international bestseller; translated into two dozen
  languages, it has won nearly 30 literary awards, and a movie
  version premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film
  Festival; the book landed on the New York Times Bestseller List a
  decade after its first publication, and its sequel debuted at the
  top of the list; his many honors include the Texas Book Award and
  the Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement, the highest
  conferred by the Texas Institute of Letters; in addition, he was
  the first Latino and first Texan to receive the prestigious
  national PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction; and
         WHEREAS, Benjamin Sáenz has touched the hearts and stirred
  the imaginations of innumerable people through writing that is at
  once deeply personal, broadly human, and richly expressive of the
  ambiguities of the borderlands; now, therefore, be it
         RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Texas, 88th
  Legislature, hereby congratulate Benjamin Alire Sáenz on his
  receipt of the 2023 Texas Medal of Arts Award for the Literary
  Arts from the Texas Cultural Trust and extend to him sincere best
  wishes for the future; and, be it further
         RESOLVED, That an official copy of this Resolution be
  prepared for Mr. Sáenz as an expression of high regard from the
  Texas Senate.
 
  Blanco
   
   
   
    ________________________________ 
        President of the Senate
     
        I hereby certify that the
    above Resolution was adopted by
    the Senate on January 24, 2023.
   
   
   
    ________________________________ 
        Secretary of the Senate
   
   
   
    ________________________________ 
         Member, Texas Senate