The Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas

ZALIKA REID-BENTA is a Canadian writer. Her debut novel River Mumma was shortlisted for the 2024 Trillium Book Award and her debut story collection Frying Plantain won the 2020 Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the 2020 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction. Her second novel The Seacliff Hotel will be published in Spring 2027 and her picture books, The Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas and Esme’s Happy 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.