Saeed Teebi celebrates Palestinian identity and community in new story collection

Saeed Teebi is a writer and lawyer based in Toronto. His debut book of short stories, Her First Palestinian was published in August.

Her First Palestinianis a collection of stories about characters who grapple with their experiences as Palestinian immigrants inCanada. It is one of fivebooks shortlistedfor the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Prize for Fiction.The $60,000 award recognizesthe best novel or short story collection published in Canada. The winner will be announced on Nov. 2, 2022.

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One of the stories in the collection, the titularHer First Palestinian, was shortlisted for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize.

The 2023CBC Short Story Prizeis open now for submissions, and the winner will receive a writing residency atArtscape Gibraltar Point,$6,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their work published onCBC Books.

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Teebi was born to Palestinian parents in Kuwait, and has lived in Canada since 1993. His writing frequently engages the immigrant experience and his Palestinian background. Hespoke to CBC Books about how he wrote Her First Palestinian.

A pandemic book

"I started writingin August of 2019 and I was done basically by the end of 2020. It wasa pandemic book. The pandemic obviously, it was highly unfortunate gave me a lot of privileges that I wouldn't have otherwise had. I couldn't commute, Ihad to constantly stay at home. There was a lot of time saved, so I was able to devote myself to writingfully.

"I like to be completely clear-minded as I'm writing.I usually have a thousand things going on in my brain. I need to minimize the clutter around me. But at the same time, I always have my inspirations close at hand.

I like to be completely clear-minded as I'm writing.I usually have a thousand things going on in my brain.

"At one point, I recognized that I was channeling David Bezmozgis, who is a Canadian author, who published a book called Natasha a few years back. I went and reread a lot of the stories in that book. I was influenced by it, but I also made sure that I wasn't stealing anything."

• Read Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi

Knowing where the story ends

"I generally start from the end. I already know how the entire story is going to go. I just needto make it all fall into place. That makes me satisfied because I know that my readers will always have a good ending.

For the vast majority of my stories, I know where I'm taking you from the beginning.

"I'm confident in telling somebody, 'Read my story, you'll enjoy it,' because that's how I enjoy stories. I enjoyed the journey, but I also need the journey to end in a way that is satisfying, that makes sense. For the vast majority of my stories, I know where I'm taking you from the beginning."

Featuring Palestinian characters

"I always knew I wanted to write something that had to do with my Palestinian identity and featured Palestinian characters.On the Canadian literary landscape, there's not a lot of that. It was important for me to feature those kinds of characters.

I always knew I wanted to write something that had to do with my Palestinian identity and featured Palestinian characters.

"I happen to think that the stories are pretty universally applicable to other peoples in diaspora or other immigrants. But to engage those kinds of characters was important to me."

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The trauma of losing your home

"I don't necessarily think of it as telling the stories of my family. It's a work of fiction, so Ihave quite a bit of distance from a lot of my characters. But I understand the reason that they do the things that they do are,in large part, due to their experiences as people who have been removed from their homes, who have lost their homes, and can't return to their homes.

It's a big trauma, and it's a trauma that is multi-generational.

"That happens in one way or another. Sometimes it's an indirect thing. I've certainly seen it in my family, friends, acquaintances and in other people in the community. It affects them in different ways. It's a big trauma, and it's a trauma that is multi-generational. I know in my family at least three generations maybe four generations of people have been affected by the trauma of being removed from our ancestral home."

LISTEN | Saeed Teebi discusses his short stories with Tom Power:

Q22:37Saeed Teebi on his debut story collection Her First Palestinian

In his debut story collection, Her First Palestinian, Saeed Teebi shines a light on the varied experiences of Palestinian Canadian characters navigating their way through life in their new home country. He joined Tom Power to tell us more.

A culture of community

"I think Western culture is highly individualistic. The main unit of cultural importance is the person and the people around the person are satellites to them. It's not like that in a lot of our culture. When you talk about you, you're bringing in everybody else who's around you. Your family unit, your extended family and even everybody in the community.

You're never talking about one person or how something affects me. It's always how something affects us.

"You see that a lot in my stories. For exampleThe Bodyis a story about a character who is not forced to marry but is essentially marrying because his mother says, 'Okay, now it's time to get married.'

"You're never talking about one person or how something affects me. It's always how something affects us."

Saeed Teebi's comments have been edited for length and clarity.