Press items
The Millions’s Year in Reading interviews Alejandro. “YIR gathers together some of today’s most exciting writers, thinkers, and tastemakers to share the books that shaped their year.”
In this episode, Annmarie and Alejandro talk about social justice, online dating, and whether writing fiction can help foster the collective liberation of our society.
The People Who Report More Stress is a Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2023!
In the first ever episode of “Los Bookis,” AGG and Sergio Lopez sit down with Alejandro Varela, to discuss his latest book, “The People Who Report More Stress.” They dig deep into his work, his job at the US Open, outings to gay bars as a young man, capitalism v. working class issues, what Alejandro would be like if he was on the apps, what we should be advocating for at all times, who he wants to play Eduardo and Gus if there was a movie adaptation, and how he wants to be remembered.
Alejandro Varela’s The People Who Report More Stress is a master class in analyzing the unspoken…. Varela illuminates our society’s Gordian knots with a seemingly effortless wit and empathy.
“It might seem reckless of me to deem National Book Award finalist Alejandro Varela’s The People Who Report More Stress one of the best story collections of the year when it’s the first I’ve read. But here’s the thing: Varela’s collection does everything right. The interconnected stories vary greatly in subject and style, but all deal with the anxieties of people living in the margins.”
Alejandro Varela is a singular voice, a brilliant fiction writer whose work is wholly original, managing to be both important and completely entertaining.
The National Book Award finalist illustrates the fallacy of American social mobility in “The People Who Report More Stress”
Alejandro discusses The People Who Report More Stress, his new collection of interconnected short stories that examines the impact of stress and anxiety on those living on the margins and the ways that—in a society defined by hierarchies—success does not translate to health and happiness.
“The People Who Report More Stress is a smartly curated collection that gets better as it goes along, building to the epiphanies missing in the earlier stories. Varela’s witty, observant prose lifts each of these stories, even if the premises are decidedly grounded in real world and contemporary concerns. There’s a wisdom and lightness to Varela’s work that nudges us toward the conclusion that our divisions, while there may be many, can be mended.”
“Alejandro Varela’s new story collection [The People Who Report More Stress] is a prismatic engagement with class, race, and identity.”
“With biting humor, a sharp eye for the weird details that define places and relationships, a delightful sense of play and a lot of heart, he examines the intersecting lives of a group of mostly queer and Latinx New York City residents.”
“The Town of Babylon,” a debut novel by Salvadoran Colombian Alejandro Varela, follows a queer man confronting his past during his 20th high school reunion in his suburban hometown. Varela’s second book, “The People Who Report More Stress,” a short-story collection, will be out this April.
“Varela follows up The Town of Babylon, a finalist for the National Book Award, with a searing collection about gentrification, racism, and sexuality. […] Varela provides invaluable insight on the ways stress impacts the characters’ lives, and how they persevere. Readers will be floored.”
The Town of Babylon was longlisted for the PEN America Open Book Award!
The Town of Babylon made it into a few year-end best-of lists!
“I first read Alejandro Varela’s National Book Award finalist debut, The Town of Babylon, back in March. When I reread it on audio a few weeks ago, I was struck by how well, and how truthfully, Varela captures the interlocking stories of complex communities.”
“Alejandro Varela’s National Book Award–nominated The Town of Babylon has that same deep sense of body and place, but all wrapped up in a landscape that isn’t.”
Nisha Chittal, managing editor at Vox, reviews The Town of Babylon.
Watch Alejandro read an excerpt from The Town of Babylon.
Amy Sutherland interviews Alejandro for the Boston Globe’s Bibliophiles column.
“The Town of Babylon is Alejandro Varela’s smart, tender and very queer debut novel.”
Twenty five books, spread across five categories, were named on Tuesday, including fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The winners will be announced next month.
“Varela took some time to chat with me about issues of mental health, the myth of meritocracy, and the importance of dismantling systems of oppression.”
“All illness, including mental illness, is exacerbated by a lack of community, by feeling alone.”
Public health and fiction share a desire to elicit reactions… both examine experiences in order to better understand human motivations and actions, as well as the systems that dictate our decision-making.
In an interview with Executive Editor Alexandra Watson, Varela discusses the inspirations behind the novel - his experiences growing up in a white-majority suburb, and how studying and working in public health illuminated his writing and understanding of the "American Dream."
“The Town of Babylon is a big-hearted, intricate, and daring debut novel that creates a fully-realized, imperfect hero who confronts our country’s great failings while discovering the fragile beauty that lurks beneath the surface of human connections. There is an assuredness to Varela’s writing, a quality usually observed in authors who have a dozen books to their name. Simply put, this is perfectly crafted novel from a truly talented writer.”
In his well-received debut novel The Town of Babylon, published in March, Alejandro Varela’s background in public health informs his critique of the alienation and oppression of twenty-first-century suburban life. Varela expands on this exploration through a different narrator’s perspective in “Peterloo,” which appears in the Summer 2022 issue of The Georgia Review. Novelist Xhenet Aliu (Brass, 2018) interviewed him about the story.
Earlier this year, I spoke to the choreographer, dancer, singer, and educator Miguel Gutierrez. I was finishing up my book tour for The Town of Babylon (Astra House). I sat in a hotel room in Boston; he was in his home in Brooklyn. The choreographer-dancer, Rebecca Wender, introduced me to Gutierrez a dozen years ago. I was immediately hooked by his work, but also by the ways in which his art was unabashedly political and liberatory. I don’t think I’ve missed any of his creations since. A few years ago, I transitioned from fanboy to friend. He graciously accepted when I asked him if he would talk with me, on the record, about my debut novel, about artmaking, about queerness, about hustling and self-promotion, about Latinidad, about institutional approval—or the lack thereof. What follows is that conversation-slash-therapy session.