Zalika Reid-Benta is a Toronto-based author. Lauded by George Elliott Clarke as a 'writer to watch', Reid-Benta explores race, identity and culture through the lens of second-generation Caribbean Canadians in her work. The Columbia MFA gradudate's debut novel Frying Plantain is a series of interconnected stories featuring a young black female protagonist in West end Toronto neighbourhood. Reid-Benta is at work on a YA fantasy novel that draws from Jamaican folklore and Akan spirituality, according to her publisher House of Anansi Press.

CBC Books named Reid-Benta a writer to watch in 2019.