Searching for Identity in the Diaspora as an Afro-Caribbean
Toronto’s Little Jamaica finally gets its literary moment
The diasporic experience is one of give and take. It’s a stifling dance between not being quite like here or there, made even more complicated by the typical exhaustion transitioning from childhood to adulthood brings. But all this is perfectly illustrated in Zalika Reid-Benta’s debut, Frying Plantain (June 2019, House of Anansi Press).
Through a series of short stories, Frying Plantain offers a nostalgic dive into Toronto’s past as character Kara Davis desperately tries to navigate her Jamaican Canadian identity within the city’s now-gentrified Little Jamaica neighborhood. Frying Plantain stands out especially as it colors the overwhelmingly white literary discourse of what life is like north of the border.
In this interview, Sharine Taylor speaks with Zalika Reid-Benta exclusively for ZORA on writing complicated identities, intergenerational differences within Caribbean families, and why centering her neighborhood was critical.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
