Novelist and poet Benjamin Alire Sáenz, 71, died on July 28 after a “lengthy illness,” the El Paso Times reports. His 2012 novel, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, won a Printz honor and Pura Belpré award and sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. Saenz also won the 2013 Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his novel Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club. Sáenz’s novel When the World Was Happy is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster Children’s on Sept. 29. His Teen Librarian Toolbox post about the book is his last completed essay.
