Diaspora Dialogues TOK Symposium

Diaspora Dialogues: Beneath The Surface

Zalika Reid-Benta and Vincent Lam

2:00pm

Saturday, September 23

60 mins

Mythology’s rivers, ravines and subterranean spaces suggest unconscious states and unexpressed desires. From Zalika Reid-Benta, the Giller-nominated author of Frying Plantain, comes an exhilarating magical realist novel about a millennial Black woman who navigates her quarter-life-crisis while embarking on a quest through the streets of Toronto. River Mumma is a powerful portrayal of diasporic identities and a vital examination into ancestral ties. And in On the Ravine, Giller Prize winner Vincent Lam explores the murky depths of addiction and the doctor-patient relationship.

This event will be followed by a book signing.

Conversation

How to attend

$39.99

Single Day Pass

$69.99

Weekend Pass

$199.99

Full Festival Pass

Students and youth save up to 50% on passes.

This event will be followed by a book signing.

Conversation

Featured Authors

Zalika Reid-Benta

Zalika Reid-Benta is the author of Frying Plantain, which won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction. Frying Plantain was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and it was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award, the Toronto Book Award, the White Pine Award and the Evergreen Forest of Reading Award. Zalika served on many juries including the Giller, the Danuta Gleed, the Amazon First Novel Prize and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award. She received an M.F.A. from Columbia University, was a John Gardner Fiction Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and was the 2021-22 Writer in Residence at Western University. Zalika’s second book, River Mumma, a magical realist novel inspired by Jamaican folklore, was released by Penguin Canada August 22^nd 2023.