Ep. 403 Being Heartbroken Is Annoying with Alejandro Varela

The Stacks

Traci Thomas

Arts, Society & Culture, Books, Literature

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today on The Stacks, we are joined by National Book Award finalist Alejandro Varela to talk about his newest novel, Middle Spoon. Humorously exploring unconventional relationships and complexities of polyamory, this novel follows Alejandro’s unnamed narrator, a married man navigating heartbreak after his boyfriend abruptly dumps him. We discuss why he wanted to write about heartbreak, how he brought more of himself to this book, and why it was important to him to depict OCD correctly.

The Stacks Book Club pick for December is Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger. We will discuss the book on Wednesday, December 31st, with Joel Anderson as our guest.

You can find links to everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks Website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2025/12/17/ep-403-alejandro-varela

Connect with Alejandro: Instagram | Website | Bluesky

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:44.1	The DM started with the first book, and they were always really heartfelt.
0:52.0	I feel like you wrote about my life as a queer kid, as a brown kid, as a suburban kid, so on and so forth. And I didn't, I don't sit down and think, oh, I have to write for
0:56.9	people who might connect with me. I think I'm writing about some pretty universal stuff that
1:02.3	hasn't gotten a lot of attention maybe, or deserves more attention. And so the DMs in that
1:08.2	way, they're really hardening. They personally, they are validating.
1:12.1	They make me think that I've chosen a path, a career where I'm doing more good than
1:17.5	harm.
1:17.9	And that's all, you know, that's all I ever want.
1:19.9	But yeah, it's quite heartening, heartening and it makes me want to keep writing.
1:32.0	Welcome to the Stacks, a podcast about books and the people who read them.
1:37.1	I'm your host, Tracy Thomas, and today we are joined by National Book Award finalist Alejandro Varela to discuss his newest book, Middlespoon, humorously exploring unconventional relationships
1:42.1	and complexities of polyamory.
1:43.9	This novel follows Alejandro's unnamed narrator, a married man with two kids, humorously exploring unconventional relationships and complexities of polyamory.
1:48.6	This novel follows Alejandro's unnamed narrator, a married man with two kids, as he struggles to navigate heartbreak and judgment after his boyfriend abruptly dumps him.
1:53.6	Today, Alejandro and I discuss why he wanted to write this heartbreak novel, how he sees
1:58.6	himself as a public policy advocate whose medium is fiction,
2:02.1	and how his desire to be liked has transformed him into a prolific author.
	...

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