The Art of the Short Story

The Center for Fiction Presents Melissa Lozada-Oliva on Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus Is Alive! with Alejandro Varela

Thursday, 7:00 pm EDT - 8:15 pm EDT September 4, 2025

The Center for Fiction
& Livestreamed

9781662601828

Join us in welcoming acclaimed poet, screenwriter, and author Melissa Lozada-Oliva to celebrate the highly anticipated release of her new short-story collection, Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus Is Alive!.

Brimming with sharp humor and earnest tenderness, this collection inhabits the deliciously uncanny space between reality and fantasy, urging us to consider how confronting the uncomfortable can lead to profound self-revelation. Beyond All Reasonable Doubt explores our most human moments, illuminating the shifting forces of desire and darkness that tug at us all.

Lozada-Oliva will be joined in conversation by Alejandro Varela, author of the National Book Award finalist, The Town of Babylon. Don’t miss this entrancing discussion about womanhood, pain, and fabulation in the short-story form. After the event, Lozada-Oliva will sign books.

9781662601828

In Conversation

  • _Melissa Lozada-Oliva_Photo credit Chimera Singer

    Melissa Lozada-Oliva

    Melissa Lozada-Oliva

    Melissa Lozada-Oliva is a poet, novelist and screenwriter. A child of Guatemalan and Colombian immigrants, she is the author of peluda, Dreaming of You, and Candelaria. Melissa’s work has appeared in Vulture, Harper’s Bazaar, BBC Mundo, Audible, the Yale Review, NPR, and more. She lives and teaches in New York City. She only prays on planes.


    Photo Credit: Chimera Singer

  • 221011_AlejandroVarela_776_FR_v2-smaller

    Alejandro Varela

    Alejandro Varela

    Alejandro Varela (he/him) is based in New York. His work has appeared in the Boston, Yale, and Georgia Reviews, the Point magazine, Harper’s, and the Offing, among other publications. His debut novel, The Town of Babylon (Astra House, 2022) was a finalist for the National Book Award. His short-story collection, The People Who Report More Stress (Astra, 2023), was a finalist for the International Latino Book Awards, and longlisted for the Aspen Literary Prize, the Story Prize, and the Jean Stein Awards. Varela holds a masters in public health from the University of Washington. His forthcoming novel, Middle Spoon, will be published in September by Viking.


    Photo Credit: Allison Michael Orenstein

Featured Book

  1. . 
    9781662601828

    Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus Is Alive!

    By Melissa Lozada-Oliva

    Published by Astra Publishing House

    PURCHASE

    A beheaded body interrupts a quinceañera. An obsession with her father’s bizarre video game shifts a lonely girl’s reality. A sentient tail sprouts from a hospital worker’s backside, throwing her romantic life into peril. And in the novella “Community Hole,” a recently cancelled musician flees New York and finds herself in a haunted punk house in Boston.

    This collection, at once playful, grisly, and tender, presents a tapestry of women ailing for something to believe in – even if it hurts them. Using body horror, fabulism, and humor, Melissa Lozada-Oliva mines the pain and uncanniness of the modern world. Reveling in the fine line between disgust and desire, Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus Is Alive! is for the sinner in us all.

About this series

The Art of the Short Story

Featuring masters of the genre and debut authors alike, The Art of the Short Story explores the endless possibilities for storytelling in the short form.

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