This week, Justine welcomes Zalika Reid-Benta as they discuss Caribbean Canadian culture and identity in the GTA, and literary representation.

Zalika Reid-Benta is a Toronto-based writer. Her debut short story collection Frying Plantain is a coming-of-age story centered around a young Jamaican Canadian girl, Kara Davis, living in Toronto’s Little Jamaica neighborhood.

Frying Plantain won the 23rd annual Danuta Gleed Literary Award, the 2020 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in literary fiction, and was shortlisted for the 2020 Trillium Book Award. Frying Plantain is currently nominated for the 2020 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award presented by the Ontario Library Association. The book also appears on numerous “must-read” lists.

Zalika is also the winner of the 2019 Byblacks People’s Choice Awards for Best Author. She is currently writing a fantasy-realist novel inspired by Jamaican folklore.

#ApartTogether we explore the rich culture of Mississauga’s Caribbean community.

Images:
Dash of Jazz
African Book Addict
Zomato

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