Zalika Reid-Benta is a Canadian writer. Her debut novel 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. Her 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 also longlisted for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and shortlisted for the 2020 Toronto Book Award, the 2020 Trillium Book Award, the 2021 White Pine Award and the 2020 Evergreen Award. Her picture book, Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas, will be published in 2025.