News at Eleven: [Benjamin Alire] Sáenz confronts history head-on.

His raw dialectic explores a peculiar American schizophrenia, internalized as a form of well-being. The Southwest is a particularly apt location to explore this split identity. It promises openness, freedom and liberation from the burdens of history, but its other side is continuing repression. Sáenz's poetics expose this schism at every turn.

from The Statesman: Two poets of Southwestern alienation

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