Gary Barwin, Mona Awad make 2017 Leacock Medal longlist
Jane van Koeverden | CBC | Posted: May 8, 2017 2:58 PM | Last Updated: July 5, 2017
The Leacock Medal, which annually celebrates Canadian literary humour, has revealed the 11 titles in contention for its $15,000 prize.
This year's longlist includes two books that were on the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist: 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad and Yiddish for Pirates by Gary Barwin. Barwin is currently serving as a judge for the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize.
- Gary Barwin on fighting tragedy with humour
- Gary Barwin on fifth-grade pirates and Christopher Columbus
- Mona Awad: How I wrote 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl
- Mona Awad on body image and self-acceptance
The other books on the longlist include:
- A Series of Dogs by John Armstrong
- White Walls by Judy Batalion
- Mary, Mary by Lesley Crewe
- A Town Called Forget by C.P. Hoff
- Don't I Know You? by Marni Jackson
- We're All in This Together by Amy Jones
- Hard Knox: Musings from the Edge of Canada by Jack Knox
- The Candidate: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail by Noah Richler
- Take Us to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor
The longlist is normally just 10 titles long, but an exception was made this year as two books were tied in the judges' marks.
The 2016 prize went to Susan Juby for her book Republic of Dirt.
- Marni Jackson imagines encounters with Taylor Swift, Leonard Cohen in new book
- Marni Jackson on close encounters of the celebrity kind
- Judy Batalion: How I wrote about my mother's hoarding
- How a writing teacher helped Judy Batalion find her perfect subject — her mother
- Noah Richler on exactly what it's like to lose an election
- Drew Hayden Taylor takes the Proust questionnaire
A shortlist of three books will be announced on May 3, and the winner will be announced on June 10.