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To be nominated for the Governor-General’s Award for literature at the age of 17 would be a remarkable accomplishment for anyone. No wonder Abu Bakr al Rabeeah isn’t quite over the shock of learning that his first book, Homes: A Refugee Story, was just shortlisted for the Governor-General’s Award for non-fiction.

“I actually just woke up and I saw lots of emails and messages and I was like, ‘What’s going on?”” he told me when I caught up with him Wednesday during his lunch break from his Grade 12 classes at M. E. LaZerte High School.

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“Honestly, it’s unbelievable. I haven’t told my parents yet. They have no idea, honestly. I’m just trying to understand it myself, for now.”

The Edmonton teen only began learning English three-and-a-half years ago when he and his family first arrived in Edmonton as refugees.

The family was originally from Basra, Iraq. They fled the war and chaos there for Syria, only to find themselves caught up, in turn, in Syria’s civil war.