Description

KEYNOTE ADDRESS:

“Living In The Wounds Of A Nation (or at a time in my life when I would rather stay home and write in an office flooded in the light, why I cannot avert my eyes, why I cannot shut my mouth)”

BIOGRAPHY:

In The Book of What Remains, his fifth book of poems, he writes to the core truth of life’s ever-shifting memories. Set along the Mexican border, the contrast between the desert’s austere beauty and the brutality of border politics mirrors humanity’s capacity for both generosity and cruelty. His most recent book is a collection of poetry, The Last Cigarette on Earth.

Alire Sáenz recently retired as the chair of the Creative Writing Department at the University of Texas at El Paso.