Explore the debut novel River Mumma and award-winning story collection Frying Plantain through an engaging discussion with author Zalika Reid-Benta
Join author Zalika Reid-Benta, alumna of Victoria College and Caribbean Studies, University of Toronto, for an engaging evening as she discusses her debut novel River Mumma and award-winning story collection Frying Plantain, followed by a moderated discussion on Thursday, February 27, 2025, from 6 – 8 p.m. at the William Doo Auditorium, New College.
ASL provided
Refreshments provided
River Mumma
“Wholly original, remarkably crafted, and unmatched in voice. I loved this book!”
—Cherie Dimaline, bestselling author of VenCo and Empire of Wild
Issa Rae’s Insecure with a magical realist spin: River Mumma is an exhilarating contemporary fantasy novel about a young Black woman who navigates her quarter-life-crisis while embarking on a mythical quest through the streets of Toronto.

Alicia has been out of grad school for months. She has no career prospects and lives with her mom, who won’t stop texting her macabre news stories and reminders to pick up items from the grocery store.
Then, one evening, the Jamaican water deity, River Mumma, appears to Alicia, telling her that she has twenty-four hours to scour the city for her missing comb.
Alicia doesn’t understand why River Mumma would choose her. She can’t remember all the legends her relatives told her, unlike her retail co-worker Heaven, who can reel off Jamaican folklore by heart. She doesn’t know if her childhood visions have returned, or why she feels a strange connection to her other co-worker Mars. But when the trio are chased down by malevolent spirits called duppies, they realize their tenuous bonds to each other may be their only lifelines. With the clock ticking, Alicia’s quest through the city broadens into a journey through time—to find herself and what the river carries.
River Mumma is a powerful portrayal of diasporic identities and a vital examination into ancestral ties. It is a homage to Jamaican storytelling by one of the most invigorating voices in Canadian literature.
Frying Plantain
“Frying Plantain deftly chips away at white dismissals of privilege, obscuring the lines between short story and novel . . . It documents a unique and complex cultural space that’s under threat, while acknowledging the challenges of living a hyphenated life. It reminds us that individuals remain bound to their cultural experience — their quirks and fixations stubbornly wrapped up as metaphorical leftovers.”
—Literary Review of Canada
Set in the neighbourhood of “Little Jamaica,” Frying Plantain follows a girl from elementary school to high school graduation as she navigates the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation immigrants experiencing first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity in a predominantly white society.

Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle — of her North American identity and her desire to be a “true” Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother’s rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too “faas” or too “quiet” or too “bold” or too “soft.” In these twelve interconnected stories, we see Kara on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig’s head in her great-aunt’s freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother’s house, trying to cope with ongoing battles of unyielding authority.
A rich and unforgettable portrait of growing up between worlds, Frying Plantain shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker.
Author
Zalika Reid-Benta

Zalika Reid-Benta is a Canadian author. Her debut novel River Mumma was shortlisted for the 2024 Trillium Book Award and was listed as one of the best fiction books of 2023 on numerous platforms, including CBC Books, Kobo Books, and The Walrus. River Mumma received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist Magazine and Foreword Reviews. It is an Amazon Books Editors’ Pick for Best Science Fiction and Fantasy and was the October 2023 pick for the CityLine book club. Reid-Benta’s debut story collection, Frying Plantain, won the 2020 Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the 2020 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction. Frying Plantain was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award, the Trillium Book Award, the White Pine Award and the Evergreen Award.
Zalika was the 2023 and 2019 winner of the ByBlacks People’s Choice Award for Best Author.
Reid-Benta earned an MFA in creative writing at Columbia University, and received an Hons. BA in English and Cinema Studies with a minor in Caribbean Studies at the University of Toronto. She has written for various publications including FASHION magazine, Quill and Quire and the Literary Review of Canada.
Reid-Benta was a mentor for the 2023 BIPOC Writers Connect program facilitated by the Writers Union of Canada. She was the 2021-2022 Writer-in-Residence at Western University; a 2020 John Gardner Fiction Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference; the 2019 Writer-in-Residence at Open Book; and in 2022, taught a summer creative writing class at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. She served on the jury for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award (2023), the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award (2021), the Danuta Gleed Literary Award (2020), the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition (2020), and also served on several juries on behalf of the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.
Her picture book, The Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas will be published in 2026.
Event Details
An Evening with Author Zalika Reid-Benta: Exploring River Mumma and Frying Plantain
Thursday, February 27, 2025
6 PM – 8 PM ET
William Doo Auditorium, New College, University of Toronto – 45 Willcocks Street, Toronto
Books are available to purchase at your local bookstore such as A Different Booklist or your public library.
RSVP Today!
We would like to thank New College; Centre of Caribbean Studies; Victoria College; Women and Gender Studies and PEN Canada for their collaboration on this event.
With A Different Booklist





