Out100: Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Photography by Danielle Levitt

In his Y.A. books--such as his latest, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe-- Saenz shows the deep emotional bond between boys through the poetry of language. But it was his short story collection, Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, that won this year's PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, making him the first Latino and the second gay writer to do so. "I wrote this book, in many ways, to save my life," Saenz has explained. "I write all my books to save my life, I think."

Photographed at Milk Studio in Los Angeles on October 7, 2013

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