Benjamin Alire Saenz receives PEN/Faulkner Fiction Prize

Posted by Ron Charles on May 5, 2013 - The Washington Post

Benjamin Alire Saenz became the first Latino writer to receive the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Prize at a Saturday night ceremony in Washington.
The 58-year-old author of more than a dozen collections of poetry and works for children, teens and adults won the award for “Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club.” The book is a collection of seven loosely linked stories, published by Cinco Puntos, a small independent press in El Paso, Texas, where Saenz lives.

This year’s PEN/Faulkner judges — Walter Kirn, Nelly Rosario and A.J. Verdelle — considered 351 submissions published during 2012 and ultimately selected a winner and four finalists. Saenz received $15,000, and each finalist received $5,000, but small presses were the big winners, taking three of the five slots:

• Amelia Gray, “Threats” (FSG)
• Laird Hunt, “Kind One” (Coffee House)
• T. Geronimo Johnson, “Hold It ‘Til It Hurts” (Coffee House)
• Thomas Mallon, “Watergate” (Pantheon)

All the authors read brief passages from their work on the stage of the Folger Theatre, which was set for a production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” An enormous golden piano — a la Liberace – and a stunning spiral staircase gave the evening an added touch of glamour. NPR’s Jacki Lyden was the master of ceremonies.
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