Alejandro Varela

Alejandro Varela (born 1979) is an American fiction writer. His novel The Town of Babylon was a finalist for a National Book Award for Fiction in 2022.

Career Varela graduated from Cornell with a Bachelor of Arts and the University of Washington with a Masters in Public Health. After graduating, he worked on an HIV study for the New York City Blood Center and managed cancer screening studies at Mount Sinai in Manhattan.

Varela was working in a skyscraper two blocks way from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He detailed his experience on that day to Nicole Chung in The Atlantic, "I don’t know when the nightmares started, but after that, it was a long time before I could fly again."

Varela's debut novel, The Town of Babylon, was published in 2022, and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. The judges for the award said, "With this urgent, vivid novel, Varela has given us a modern classic and an indelible portrait of our times."

His second book, The People Who Report More Stress, a short story collection, was published in 2023. The New York Times called it "a master class in analyzing the unspoken... Varela illuminates our society’s Gordian knots with a seemingly effortless wit and empathy." The book was longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize.

Varela's third book, Middle Spoon, a novel, was published in 2025. The Boston Globe described it as "... decidedly modern examination of polyamory, family, individual neurosis, and pop culture. A multifaceted gem of a novel."

Personal Varela is gay and lives in New York City. His parents are from Colombia and El Salvador.

Aspen Words Literary Prize — PEN Open Book Award — International Latino Book Awards The Isabel Allende Award Finalist International Latino Book Awards Best First Book - Fiction Finalist International Latino Book Awards Short Stories Silver Medal The Story Prize — 2024 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award — 2025 Middle Spoon Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize Longlisted