Elegies in Blue: Poems

Benjamin Saenz writes, In the desert, we live in a desert of translation. That is exactly what he sets out to do, in this, his third book of poems--translate experience into words. He writes of history and learning and death. He writes of loss and knowledge and the difficulties of coming to terms with the harsh and untamable landscape of the border. Ultimately, his elegies are stones that praise the lives of those who have given him words.

In the tradition of Latin American literature, Saenz believes that poetry should be part of the public discourse and not shunted aside as irrelevant to our country's larger issues. Here he maps out personal, political and spiritual histories. He speaks about political and literary heroes, anti-heroes and everyday people, and he remembers his growing up Chicano in the Catholic world of the U.S./Mexico Border. From these elements, he creates a philosophy of speaking publicly as poet.

Author: Benjamin Alire Saenz
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Published: 02/01/2002
Pages: 144
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.43lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.10w x 0.41d
ISBN: 9780938317647


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 02/15/2002 pg. 986
PW Notes and Reprints 04/29/2002 pg. 67
Library Journal 07/01/2002 pg. 85
Library Journal 07/15/2002

About the Author
BENJAMIN ALIRE SÁENZ was born in his grandmother's house in Picacho, New Mexico--on the outskirts of Las Cruces, New Mexico where Juliana in Hollywood is set. He was the fourth of seven children and was brought up in a traditional Mexican-American Catholic family. His family spoke mostly Spanish at home, and it was only through his education in the public schools that he learned to speak and write in English. He entered the seminary in 1972, a decision that was as much political as it was religious: he was heavily influenced by such Catholic thinkers as Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, César Chavez and the Berrigan brothers. After concluding his theological studies at the University of Louvain, he was ordained a Catholic priest. Three and a half years later, he left the priesthood. At the age of 30, he entered the Creative Writing Program at the University of Texas at El Paso. He later received a fellowship at the University of Iowa, and in 1988, he received a Wallace E. Stegner Fellowship in poetry from Stanford University. In 1993 he returned to the border to teach in the Bilingual MFA program at the University of Texas at El Paso. His most recent book of poetry, Elegies in Blue, was published by Cinco Puntos Press in 2002. This is his first book for young adults.