The Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas

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. River Mumma received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist Magazine, and Foreword Reviews. Zalika’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. It was also longlisted for the 2020 Giller Prize. Zalika was the 2023 and 2019 winner of the ByBlacks People’s Choice Award for Best Author. Her picture books, The Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas and Esme’s Favorite Place, will be published in 2026 and 2027 respectively.

MARIYAH RAHMAN is a children’s book illustrator and background painter, born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. She has a BFA in illustration from ArtCenter College of Design, specializing in entertainment arts. Clients include Titmouse Animation, Nix Hydra, Heinemann Publishing and Simon & Schuster. Her inspirations include literature, fantasy, and folklore, and she spends most of her free time reading, baking, and rolling around with her cats and dogs. Mariyah’s debut picture book, Plátanos Are Love, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2023.