Winnie Yeung

Canadian writer

Winnie Yeung is a Canadian school teacher and writer who co-wrote Homes: A Refugee Story with high school student Abu Bakr Al-Rabeeah.^[1]

Teaching

In 2010, Iraqi student Al-Rabeeah moved with his family to Homs, Syria, but they were soon forced to move again due to the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War.^[2] He and his family moved to Edmonton, Alberta in 2014, where Yeung was his English as a second language teacher.^[3] She encouraged him to tell his own life stories as a way to practice English and began recording them.^[2]

Homes

The co-authored memoir 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

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