Thursday, June 11 at Camber Arts in Corner Brook
Join us for a fantastic evening with Booker Prize nominee Maria Reva, as she discusses her award-winning, bestselling first novel, ENDLING, with novelist Shelly Kawaja.
A darkly comic novel, ENDLING draws on Reva’s own experiences as a Ukrainian expat tracking her family’s delicate dance of survival behind enemy lines. As fiction and reality collide on the page, she probes the hard truths of war: What stories must we tell ourselves to survive? Once shattered, can our sense of normalcy and security ever be restored?
Set in Ukraine, an eccentric scientist breeding rare snails crosses paths with sisters posing as members of the for-profit marriage industry to find their activist mother. As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey with a van-load of kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail.
Called “startling and ambitious” by the New York Times, and “brilliant and heartstopping” by the LA Times, ENDLING explores survival, love, and the impact of war.
This is going to be an unforgettable night, and a real treat for Corner Brook.
Featuring music by Snizhana Dovzhenko.
Thursday, June 11 at Camber Arts – 110 Humber Road, in Corner Brook.
Books will be available for sale; cash bar.
**This event will feature ASL interpretation**
Tickets: $15 at Eventbrite. Seats are limited! Reserve yours today.
This event is supported and subsidized by the Canada Council for the Arts Public Outreach Program. We’re grateful to our partners: Camber Arts in Corner Brook, and Writers NL.
MARIA REVA was born in Ukraine and grew up in Canada. Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, McSweeney’s, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere, earning a National Magazine Award. She also works as an opera librettist.
SHELLY KAWAJA is the author of The Raw Light of Morning. Her work has appeared in Horseshoe Literary Magazine, The Humber Literary Review, The Dalhousie Review, and PACE. She was longlisted for the Bridge Prize, the Writer’s Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Fresh Fish Award, and won the GritLIT short fiction contest. Shelly lives in Corner Brook with her family.
SNIZHANA DOVZHENKO is a Ukrainian singer and educator based in Corner Brook, NL. With a Master’s degree in Musical Art, she brings warmth and authenticity to every performance. Snizhana shares Ukrainian culture through music, blending traditional and contemporary songs, and actively contributes to the local multicultural and Ukrainian community.