According to a recent version of the CBC’s language guide, “there is no modern country of Palestine,” and journalists working for the Mother Corp should “not refer to Palestine or show a map with Palestine as a country.” So when the contenders for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize were announced, it was refreshing to see among them a work that acknowledged that very place, “Her First Palestinian.”
With the publication of his debut collection, also called Her First Palestinian, the author and lawyer Saeed Teebi arrives as a startling new voice. Consisting of nine stories, all of which concern Palestinian characters living in Canada, the book is riveting, significant, and sure to make waves in literary circles. Regarding a people so thoroughly marginalized in the cultural discourse, it is a powerful rebuke to those who wish the Palestinian narrative would stay out of sight and mind.
For years, Palestinian American writers such as Randa Jarrar and Susan...
Aaron Kreuter is the author of Shifting Baseline Syndrome, which was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 2022.
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