Jury Citation

“Set in Soviet-era Ukraine, in a crumbling apartment building somehow scratched from the State’s all-important records, Maria Reva’s Good Citizens Need Not Fear is a magic trick of a book: a dark and scathingly funny set of interconnected stories, each one alive with originality, that nonetheless leave the reader immersed in the very wholeness of these characters and their place in the world. Erased and ground down, Reva’s good citizens rise up and shine, insisting that their existence matters in harrowing and surreal and sometimes hilarious detail, as she proves the importance of writing toward the light, even — or especially — in the darkest times.” — 2020 WT Fiction Prize Jury (Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Waubgeshig Rice, and Yasuko Thanh)

Jury Citation

“Set in the Ukraine and told in the voice of a young girl, ‘The Ermine Coat’ is a deeply moving story of a family – two women who sew fur coats for a living and the daughters they raise together. With elegant, nuanced prose, brimming with beauty and tenderness, Maria Reva sheds light on the social and economic pressures of Soviet life and reveals the joys and fragilities of familial love, and the sacrifices we make for it.” — 2018 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award Jury (Martha Baillie, Omar El Akkad, and Ayelet Tsabari)