Imagination 2024 – Zalika Reid-Benta

Zalika Reid-Benta (she/her) is a Canadian writer. Her debut novel River Mumma has been described as “a powerful yet funny, thrilling yet zany exploration of the past and present” and a “must read” by the Toronto Star. River Mumma received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist Magazine. It was the October 2023 pick for the CityLine book club and has been listed as one of the best fiction books of 2023 on numerous platforms, including CBC Books, Indigo Books, Kobo Books and The Walrus. Reid-Benta’s debut short story collection Frying Plantain won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction in 2020. Frying Plantain was longlisted for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and it was shortlisted for the 2020 Toronto Book Award, the 2020 Trillium Book Award, the 2020 Evergreen Award, and the 2021 White Pine Award. Her picture book, Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas, will be published in 2025.

She will talk about her book River Mumma with host Myriam Bowles-Carrier.

Order Zalika’s book now at La Maison Anglaise and the Festival will receive 30% of the sale! Click here.