Abu Bakr Al-Rabeeah

Abu Bakr Al-Rabeeah is a Canadian writer, whose memoir Homes: A Refugee Story, cowritten with Winnie Yeung, was published in 2018.[1]

Originally from Iraq, Al-Rabeeah moved with his family to Homs, Syria in 2010 to escape persecution due to their status as minority Sunni Muslims, but were soon forced to move again due to the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War.[2] He and his family have lived in Edmonton, Alberta since 2014,[3] and Yeung was his English as a second language teacher at the time he began to consider writing the book.[3]

The book was self-published in 2016, before being picked up for commercial republication by Freehand Books in 2018.[4]

It was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 2018 Governor General's Awards,[5] and for the 2019 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.[6] It was selected for the 2019 edition of Canada Reads, where it was defended by Chuck Comeau.[7]

References
  1. "Abu Bakr al Rabeeah, teenage refugee from Syria, tells his story with help from his teacher Winnie Yeung". CBC Books, January 31, 2019.
  2. "Edmonton teacher helps refugee tell his story". CBC News Edmonton, June 23, 2016.
  3. "The Syrian boy who wrote his life story – with the help of his Canadian teacher". The Guardian, May 12, 2018.
  4. "Teenage Syrian refugee teams up with Edmonton teacher to tell his story in new book". StarMetro Edmonton, May 12, 2018.
  5. "Edmonton refugee, teacher on shortlist for Governor General’s Literary Award". Global Edmonton, October 5, 2018.
  6. "Books about masculinity, energy projects among Shaughnessy Cohen Prize finalists". The Globe and Mail, April 3, 2019.
  7. "Chuck Comeau, Joe Zee, Lisa Ray take on Canada Reads battle of the books". CityNews, January 31, 2019.


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