Two sisters have devoted their lives to becoming star ballerinas in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad during 1958. Due to fears of defection, the Soviet government of Russia rules that family members may no longer travel abroad together. Only one sister is allowed to join the ballet. This is the premise of Elyse Durham’s debut novel of historical fiction, Maya & Natasha (Mariner Books, 2025).
Maya and Natasha are 17 years old, twin sisters training in ballet for almost their entire lives.
“After this new law to prevent defections, they suddenly find themselves pitted against each other after spending their entire lives supporting each other at every turn,” Durham says. “Suddenly they come to this point where that is not possible anymore. So the rest of the books asks—what does it look like to suddenly have to choose between your family and the person you love most in the world and this thing you have completely dedicated your entire self?”
Durham spent much of the time of the Covid pandemic devoted to writing the book. The isolation, she says, brought both advantages and disadvantages. She was able to view ballet dancers and performances across the globe online that might otherwise not have been available—and even take online ballet lessons herself.
“One of the reasons I had to write this book was that immersing myself in ballet, taking dance, coming to love it as an art form, reminded me that having a physical body is good,” she says. “I think it is easy to forget that, especially these days when so much of our lives are digital.”
Elyse Durham is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Her fiction has appeared or is upcoming in the Cimarron Review, Image Journal, the Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. She is an Elizabeth George grantee and has held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, the Glen Arbor Arts Center, and The Mount, the home of Edith Wharton. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with her husband, who is a Greek Orthodox priest.
Durham’s book launch, a reading and conversation with author Andy Mozina, will take place on February 18th at 6:30 p.m. at this is a bookstore. A story about the author, Dancing into a Debut, appears in Encore magazine.
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