Zalika Reid-Benta

Zalika Reid-Benta is a Jamaican Canadian writer from Toronto. She loved reading from childhood and had a passion for creativity. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor’s degree in English and film studies. For her second specialization, she chose to study the Caribbean countries—their culture and customs, linguistic diversity, geography, and regional and national history.

She studied creative writing at Columbia University in New York. Later, from 2017 to 2019, she attended literary conferences and took part in workshops for aspiring authors. Her mentors included writers George Elliott Clarke, Victor LaValle, and Olive Senior. In interviews, Reid-Benta has also named among the literary gurus who inspire her творчество Toni Morrison, Jamaica Kincaid, Dorothy Allison, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions was included in the must-read book lists of The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Bustle, Refinery29, and others, was nominated for numerous literary awards, and Zalika herself received the ByBlacks People’s Choice Award as Best Writer. Today she is working on her second novel, imbued with the atmosphere of Jamaican folklore.

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