In Javier Fuentes’ Countries of Origin: A Novel, pastry chef Demetrio returns to Spain as an undocumented immigrant, leaving behind his beloved uncle in New York. On the flight, he meets the sensitive, aristocratic Jacobo, sparking a subtle electricity. Amid Madrid’s bars and coastal beaches, they form an intense relationship, navigating identity, class, and intimacy, until a family tragedy forces them to confront their true feelings. In Torrey Peters’ Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories, the titular novel follows a group of restless lumberjacks who plan a dance that some will attend as women, which will culminate in an astonishing vision of gender and transition. The stories imagine a gender apocalypse, intrigue and cruelty at a Quaker boarding school, and a crossdresser’s choice at a party weekend in Las Vegas. Moderated by Sabir Sultan, director of the World Voices Festival and literary programs at PEN America.
Buy Countries of Origin: A Novel – Fuentes
Buy Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories – Peters
JAVIER FUENTES is a Spanish American writer whose debut work of fiction, Countries of Origin: A Novel (Vintage), won the 2024 PEN/Hemingway award. He has received fellowships from Columbia University, Lambda Literary, and the Ucross Foundation. Fuentes has taught at the School of Visual Arts, Columbia University, and Bard College, where he was the inaugural Paris Review visiting professor of literature at the Bard Prison Initiative. Born in Barcelona, he lives in New York.
