Maria Reva writes fiction and opera libretti. She is the author of Good Citizens Need Not Fear, set in an apartment block in Ukraine, as well as Endling (forthcoming in June 2025). In November 2022, she was included on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s list of sanctioned Canadian citizens who are forbidden from entering Russia.
Maria’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, McSweeney’s, The Wall Street Journal, Granta, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. She won a National Magazine Award in 2019 and was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust of Canada 2020 Fiction Prize.
Her current musical collaborations include a chamber opera with Laurence Jobidon commissioned by Opéra de Montréal and Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Opera Roadshow. Past projects include a script for City Opera Vancouver (“Lost Operas of Mozart,” 2016) and two operas with composer Anna Pidgorna: “Our Trudy,” commissioned and premiered by Ad Astra Music Festival in Kansas, and “Plaything,” developed by Musique 3 Femmes and premiered in Berlin at the ufaFabrik in Fall 2022.
Maria was born in Ukraine and grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. She received her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas.
Head shot credit: Anya Chibis
