Zalika Reid-Benta is a Canadian author. Her debut novel River Mumma was shortlisted for the 2024 Trillium Book Award and was listed as one of the best fiction books of 2023 on numerous platforms, including CBC Books, Kobo Books, and The Walrus. River Mumma received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist Magazine and Foreword Reviews. Zalika’s debut story collection, Frying Plantain, won the 2020 Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the 2020 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction. Frying Plantain was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award, the Trillium Book Award, the White Pine Award and the Evergreen Award. It was also longlisted for the 2020 Giller Prize.
Zalika was the 2023 and 2019 winner of the ByBlacks People’s Choice Award for Best Author.
Her picture books, The Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas and Esme’s Favorite Place will be published in 2026 and 2027 respectively.
Selected Media
- CBC – How Staying True to Herself Helped Zalika Reid-Benta Become an Award Winning Author
- Publishers Weekly
- Toronto Star – The writer who makes Toronto thrilling and scary
- Forewords Reviews