Rick Mercer among 11 writers longlisted for $25K Leacock Medal for Canadian humour writing

Rick Mercer is among the 11 authors longlisted for the 2024 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.

The $25,000 prize is one of the oldest of its kind, established in 1947 to support the growth of Canadian humour writing. This year, there are 11 books on the long list instead of 10.

Mercer is longlisted for The Road Years: A Memoir, Continued..., the sequel to his memoir Talking to Canadians. This new book tells the story of the success of The Rick Mercer Report and all the great encounters and other adventures that making the show allowed him to experience. It's a celebration of happy moments told in Mercer's trademark positivism and humour.

Mercer rose to fame starring on CBC's long-running series This Hour Has 22 Minutes. He was also the host of The Rick Mercer Report for 15 seasons. His newest project is the TV show Comedy Night with Rick Mercer, which is now available on CBC Gem. Talking to Canadians won the 2022 Leacock Medal. 

LISTEN | Rick Mercer takes The Proust Questionnaire: 

The Next Chapter5:56How Rick Mercer became an amateur potato farmer

The beloved comedian and author of The Road Years: A Memoir Continued, talks about nearly failing out of high school and a love for the cabin he built in Newfoundland in The Next Chapter’s version of the Proust questionnaire.

Other longlisted authors include Patrick deWitt, Deborah Willis and William Ping. 

DeWitt is recognized for his novel, The Librarianist. In The Librarianist, Bob is content spending the rest of his days reading in his Oregon home. But then a chance encounter with an older woman in the supermarket brings him to the seniors' centre, where he begins volunteering. There, through conversations and reflection that weave back and forth in time, and a few funny characters, Bob's life story is slowly revealed.

• Patrick deWitt depicts the loneliness and fullness of an introvert's life

DeWitt is a novelist from Portland, Ore., by way of Vancouver Island. He has written several novels, including The Sisters Brothers, Undermajordomo Minor and French Exit.The film adaptation of The Sisters Brothers premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and starred Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed. His other books include Undermajordomo Minor and French Exit.

LISTEN | Patrick deWitt on The Librarianist: 

The Next Chapter17:52Patrick deWitt on The Librarianist

Ryan B. Patrick interviews Patrick deWitt about his new novel, The Librarianist.

Willis is on the long list for Girlfriend on Mars. Girlfriend on Mars is a story about love in the age of commercial space travel. Amber Kivinen is one of 23 reality TV contestants vying for two spots aboard the first commercial trip to Mars aboard MarsNow, a space shuttle commissioned by the billionaire Geoff Task. 

Girlfriend on Mars made the long list for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize. 

• Reality TV and commercial space travel collide in Deborah Willis's novel Girlfriend on Mars

Willis is a writer from Calgary. She debuted in 2009 with Vanishing and Other Stories, which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award. She followed it up with a collection of short fiction entitled The Dark and Other Love Stories in 2017, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won the Georges Bugnet Award for best work of fiction published in Alberta.

Ping is longlisted for his debut novel Hollow Bamboo, which was a finalist for the 2023 Amazon First Novel Award and longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. Taking place in Newfoundland, it is a story about two William Pings — a millennial in the present with a realization that he needs to learn more about his Chinese heritage and his grandfather in the past who came to Newfoundland from China to work in a laundry in 1931. 

Ping is a writer and CBC journalist at the St. John's bureau. He completed his master of arts degree at Memorial University and received the English department's Award for Thesis Excellence for the book he wrote for his master's degree. 

The full long list is: 

• Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow.
• Coq by Ali Bryan.
• What Any Normal Person Would Do by Suzanne Craig-Whytock.
• Radio Jet Lag by Gregor Craigie.
• The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt.
• The Road Years: A Memoir, Continued... by Rick Mercer.
• Lost Dogs by Lucie Pagé.
• Hollow Bamboo by William Ping.
• The Cobra and the Key by Sam Shelstad.
• Life at the Precipice by Ron Vincent.
• Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis.

The short list will be announced May 21, and the winner will be revealed on June 22.

The prize is named in honour of Ontario writer Stephen Leacock, a humorist and popular author in the first half of the 20th century. His books include Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, published in 1912, and Literary Lapses, published in 1910.

The prize has been funded by the Dunkley Charitable Foundation since the fall of 2020. The organization is based in Orillia, Ont., the town that inspired the fictional community of Mariposa in Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. Leacock had a summer estate there.

Last year's winner was Wayne Johnston for Jennie's Boy.

Other past winners include Heidi L.M Jacobs, Robertson Davies, Pierre Berton, Farley Mowat, Paul Quarrington, Mordecai Richler, Stuart McLean, Terry Fallis, Susan Juby and Cassie Stocks.