Zalika Reid-Benta

Zalika Reid-Benta is a Canadian writer,[1] whose debut short story collection Frying Plantain won the 23rd annual Danuta Gleed Literary Award,[2] recognizing the best first collection of short fiction by a Canadian author published in 2019 in the English language. Frying Plantain also won the 2020 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in literary fiction.[3] The book is a collection of linked short stories centering on the coming of age of Kara Davis, a young Jamaican-Canadian girl growing up in the Eglinton West neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario.[4]

Zalika Reid-Benta
BornToronto, Ontario, Canada
OccupationAuthor
Website
www.zalikareidbenta.com//

Frying Plantain was shortlisted for the 2020 Toronto Book Awards,[5] it was a longlisted nominee for the 2019 Giller Prize[6] and was shortlisted for the 2020 Trillium Book Award.[7] Frying Plantain is currently nominated for the 2021 White Pine Award[8] and was nominated for the 2020 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award presented by the Ontario Library Association.[9] Reid-Benta is also the winner of the 2019 Byblacks People's Choice Awards for Best Author.

Reid-Benta studied at the University of Toronto earning an Hons. BA in English and Cinema Studies with a minor in Caribbean Studies, and she subsequently earned an MFA in fiction at Columbia University.[4] She attended the 2017 Writers Studio at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and was a 2019 John Gardener Fiction Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.[10] Prior to the publication of her book, she was mentored by writers Paul Beatty, Janice Galloway, Victor LaValle, George Elliott Clarke and Olive Senior.[4]

References
  1. Ryan B. Patrick, "Why Zalika Reid-Benta wrote a short story collection that looks at growing up young and black in Toronto". CBC Books, July 9, 2019.
  2. "Zalika Reid-Benta wins $10,000 Danuta Gleed Literary Award". Quill and Quire. 2020-06-25. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  3. "2020 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize Winners".
  4. Deborah Dundas, "Zalika Reid-Benta's debut book puts midtown Toronto on the page at last". Toronto Star, June 7, 2019.
  5. "2020 Toronto Book Awards". City of Toronto. 2017-08-16. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  6. Deborah Dundas, "Margaret Atwood, Andre Alexis among 12 authors up for $100,000 Giller book prize". Toronto Star, September 3, 2019.
  7. "Finalists – 2020 Trillium Book Award". www.ontariocreates.ca. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  8. "Forest of Reading® 2021: The White Pine Award™ Nominees".
  9. "2020 Evergreen Award Nominees". www.accessola.org. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  10. "Zalika Reid-Benta, Emily Yoon, and Liam Callanan (Bread Loaf Writer's Conference)". Literary North. Retrieved 2020-07-06.


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