Ayelet Tsabari
In Her First Palestinian Saeed Teebi brilliantly and skillfully evokes the Palestinian diaspora experience, weaving stories of displacement, longing, and loss. His characters, drawn with great empathy and insight, are immigrants and refugees, misfits and outsiders, striving to fit in a complex, modern world while carrying the burden of history. Intelligent, original, and bursting with vitality, Her First Palestinian is an assured and highly accomplished debut that will stay with you long after you finish reading.
Rebecca Sacks
Dispatches from the state of exile, these stories are filled with delightful, devastating turns as Teebi explores the endless fracturing of displacement.
Nyla Matuk
Saeed Teebi writes with Chekhovian intentionality and Nabokovian rumination. These are stories about modesty or vanity, kindness or treachery, timidity or wit. In the author’s intelligent grasp we find a heartbreaking tenacity for connection to the here and now and to the land between the river and the sea.
Danny Ramadan
Saeed Teebi is a patient storyteller. He weaves his stories through glimpses of heritage, snippets of immigration, and depth of understanding. In Her First Palestinian, Teebi introduces us to complex and endearing characters. They all ring so true; they feel like half siblings or dear cousins. They are never loud or invasive. They are inviting and warm. Almost friendly as they tell you of themselves, their history, and the personal and societal roads they have to take. However, their wound is always internal, hidden under their agency, prosperity, and the most basic human need of them all: belonging.
Jury Citation
Saeed Teebi’s Her First Palestinian is a powerful and propulsive debut collection of stories that dramatizes the experiences of the Palestinian diaspora. Compelling and complex characters displaced and removed from their historical homeland negotiate feelings of loss, estrangement, and complicity in Canada. Skillfully written with penetrating insight into the characters’ fractured identities, this book reveals a talented new Canadian voice.
Sahar Mustafah
Saeed Teebi's Her First Palestinian is an exciting contribution to contemporary Palestinian diaspora literature. His characters grapple with overzealous allies, privilege, and polite discrimination, as well as forging new identities without quite managing to shed inherited ones. With sharp wit and humour, Teebi delivers a range of stories that are pleasingly new as they reverberate familiar themes of loss and triumph.
From the Publisher
PRAISE FOR SAEED TEEBI AND HER FIRST PALESTINIAN
“This beautiful collection not only brings to light the varied and sometimes fraught experiences of diasporic Palestinians but does so with masterful storytelling. These stories are rich and deep, with elegant, tragic, or funny twists that will stay in my mind for a long time.” — Farzana Doctor, author of Seven
“A gorgeous debut collection of short stories so complex and rich they make me think that Saeed Teebi has been writing for many years.” — Hasan Namir, author of God in Pink
“Saeed Teebi's Her First Palestinian is an exciting contribution to contemporary Palestinian diaspora literature. His characters grapple with overzealous allies, privilege, and polite discrimination, as well as forging new identities without quite managing to shed inherited ones. With sharp wit and humour, Teebi delivers a range of stories that are pleasingly new as they reverberate familiar themes of loss and triumph.” — Sahar Mustafah, author of The Beauty of Your Face
“Saeed Teebi writes with Chekhovian intentionality and Nabokovian rumination. These are stories about modesty or vanity, kindness or treachery, timidity or wit. In the author’s intelligent grasp we find a heartbreaking tenacity for connection to the here and now and to the land between the river and the sea.” — Nyla Matuk, author of Stranger
“Dispatches from the state of exile, these stories are filled with delightful, devastating turns as Teebi explores the endless fracturing of displacement.” — Rebecca Sacks, author of City of a Thousand Gates
Hasan Namir
A gorgeous debut collection of short stories so complex and rich they make me think that Saeed Teebi has been writing for many years.
Farzana Doctor
This beautiful collection not only brings to light the varied and sometimes fraught experiences of diasporic Palestinians but does so with masterful storytelling. These stories are rich and deep, with elegant, tragic, or funny twists that will stay in my mind for a long time.
