Maria Reva’s dark, comedic novel “Endling” won the 2026 Aspen Words Literary Prize on April 23. The award honors works of fiction that illuminate vital contemporary issues.
Reva’s novel explores hope, love and survival in times of encroaching darkness and focuses on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War.
Prior to the invasion, Reva had plotted out her book, but the war upended her plans. She has family in Kherson.
“My relatives called from Ukraine, saying that they were hearing explosions,” Reva said at the awards ceremony last week in New York City. “So, that completely derailed their lives.”
“So, I set the book aside and gave up on it. I thought, ‘What is the relevance of this book when its setting is being destroyed in real time? And what is my role as the writer? And what is the role of fiction?’”
These — what she called existential questions — made her realize that she had to give up on her previous plan. Instead, she breaks the book up into two parts, representing Reva’s life before and after the Russia-Ukraine War.
Reva went to Ukraine a year after Russia’s invasion to conduct research for “Endling,” where she found out that despite the war, theaters were full of people.
“Sometimes the theater went underground for safety,” she said. “Opera houses were full. People were going to art galleries. People were making art.”
Reva said this was proof that art, in many forms, sustains humanity in the best and worst times.
This summer, “Endling” will be featured as Aspen Words and the Pitkin County Library’s 2026 Community Read.
As part of the program, free copies of the novel will be distributed throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.
