The CBC Short Story Prize was instrumental to launching Saeed Teebi's writing career
The Toronto lawyer was shortlisted for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize
Saeed Teebi is a writer and lawyer based in Toronto. His debut book of short stories, Her First Palestinian is a collection of stories about characters who grapple with their experiences as Palestinian immigrants in Canada.
One of the stories in the collection, the titular Her First Palestinian, was shortlisted for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize.
The collection is now one of five books shortlisted for the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. The $60,000 award recognizes the best novel or short story collection published in Canada. The winner will be announced on Nov. 2, 2022.
The 2023 CBC Short Story Prize is open for submissions until Oct. 31, 2022. You can submit original, unpublished fiction up to 2,500 words.
The winner will receive a writing residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point, $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.
Teebi recently spoke with Here and Now Toronto guest host Eli Glasner about how the CBC Short Story Prize was instrumental for his writing career.
Eli Glasner: So your debut short story collection was released earlier this year. Tell us about it.
Saeed Teebi: It's a collection of short stories that focuses on the lives of Palestinian immigrants and refugees in Canada. The stories put these characters in trying circumstances and we watch how they react on their journeys to being sort of everyday citizens here.
You started writing this during the pandemic. Is it one of those exercises where it started as a seed and then just blossomed?
That's exactly right. It was in mid-2020 and I found myself, like everybody else, with an extra few hours a day from not having to commute to work.
I started small just write a story, then write another one, eventually within about a little more than a year, I had the whole collection done.
I had long wanted to go back to writing, which is something I did earlier in life. But I had gotten mixed up in the everyday hustle and bustle of life and work. I was glad to return to it. I started small: just write a story, then write another one. Eventually, within a little more than a year, I had the whole collection done.
The name is the same as that story that you entered [in the CBC Short Story Prize], Her First Palestinian. Talk to me about the importance of that and why you decided to make that the title for your first collection.
Her First Palestinian, as you mentioned, was shortlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize. That's a fairly high-profile prize so already it had some name recognition. Given that the book was coming out the year after that prize, it was still fresh in people's minds. So it made sense to call it that. But I'm probably going to be the first Palestinian who is being read by a lot of my readers, so it made some sense in that way too. There's also some themes involved that make it an appropriate title.
I know what it's like to put yourself on the page and it's just you and your words and this world that you created and no one else. Talk to me about what it's like to get that validation when you realized you'd been shortlisted.
It's an incredible feeling. Because when I was first writing, I thought that maybe me, my wife, and maybe some of my writing friends might actually read the stories. Certainly just getting published was a huge deal, but a lot of books get published and you never know what kind of audience you have.
This book has become sort of bigger than I ever imagined it and it's an incredible validation.
You might have a small audience, which is totally fine. But at this stage, this book has become sort of bigger than I ever imagined it and it's an incredible validation. Not just of me personally as a writer, but of the stories and the Palestinian characters that I have and what they have to tell. So it's incredibly gratifying, surprising, and in many ways sort of affirming of both myself and of the society that I belong to.
Now, you're a finalist for this Atwood Gibson Writers Trust Prize. Not to toot our own horn, but do you think that your placement on the CBC shortlist helped kind of bring your work more awareness?
I have no doubt that it did. Before being shortlisted, I was essentially unknown in writing. Because I hadn't published anything. As you say, the process of writing is quite lonely and solitary. You never know if what you're working on is really of any value or will connect with anyone. But after being shortlisted, a number of editors and agents reached out and soon after, I had a publishing contract. So I would say that the prize was instrumental for my writing career.
The process of writing is quite lonely and solitary. You never know if what you're working on is really of any value or will connect with anyone.
You know somewhere out there, there's another Saeed, who isn't sure, who maybe is considering this contest. So, writer to writer, what would you tell them? What is the best approach if they are looking at entering this contest?
I would say: "Work on your craft, work on your craft, work on your craft and then once you think you're ready, have some courage." There's nothing to lose by submitting to this contest and there's a lot to potentially gain. It's, in my view, the best writing contest for short stories in Canada. So, go ahead and do it.
Why do you say courage? Is there an aspect of fear when you hit send, of releasing what you put out there into the world?
Ultimately you know that it's going to be judged. In the process of judgment, you can succeed, but you can also fail. All of us as writers and as people who are out in the world are failing all the time. It takes some courage to say, "I'm going to put myself out there," regardless of the consequences. There's certainly an element of courage. But eventually you have to do it and you have to do it over and over and over again.
Saeed Teebi's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
