Shortlist (three books) announcement: On or around Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Leacock Medal winner announcement: Scheduled for Saturday, June 21, 2025, at the Gala Dinner.
Winner: $25,000 CAD
Runners-up (two): $5,000 CAD each
Start Date for submission of entries: August 1, 2025. (See the information below)
Entry deadline for the 2025 Leacock Medal for Humour: The package of books may be postmarked no later than December 31, 2025. (It is not sufficient to simply fill in the on-line submission form by the deadline.)
Long list (10 books) announcement: On or around Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
Shortlist (three books) announcement: On or around Tuesday, May 19, 2026.
Leacock Medal winner announcement: Scheduled for Saturday, June 20, 2026, at the Gala Dinner.
Authors and publishers must submit their books according to the rules and instructions given below. Ensure that your entry follows all the rules, fill in the submission form, and mail a copy with the books, together with the entry fee. Be sure to upload the required bio, synopsis/blurb and photo files.
ENTRY DEADLINE: Entries must be postmarked no later than DECEMBER 31, 2025
ENTRY FEE: $200 CAD
Submissions for the 2026 medal will be accepted from August 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025.
Please see the submission instructions below.
Starting with the award for 2021, we introduced a new way of accepting book submissions. Instead of providing a fillable PDF submission form, we now ask authors and publishers to enter the submission details on-line.
The steps in this process are as follows:
Please fill in as much information as you can, beyond those items marked as essential. This means full addresses. Self-publishers do not need to fill in all the publisher details.
Mail the package to:
Awards Chair - Bette Walker
149 Peter St N
Orillia, ON L3V 4Z4
This package must arrive or be postmarked no later than the submission deadline date.
NOTE: Entry fees may also be paid by eTransfer to etransfer@leacock.ca.
When sending the eTransfer, please provide the name of the author and the Submission ID in the message.
The author's bio and photo, book jacket synopsis/blurb and a photo of the book cover must also be uploaded using our Electronic File Upload Facility
A comprehensive author's bio must be provided as a PDF file with the extension ".pdf".
The book jacket synopsis/blurb must be provided as a PDF file with the extension “.pdf”.
The two photos must be in high resolution (at least 1MB/300 dpi, but no wider than 2500 pixels) and must be uploaded in jpg (jpeg) format. The first is a portrait style coloured head shot of the author on a plain background and the second is a portrait style colour shot of the book cover. These are for print and online use by Stephen Leacock Associates and the Stephen Leacock Museum for display and promotional advertising. Please do not submit caricature drawings of the author instead of a proper photograph.
Please contact Bette Walker at awardschair@leacock.ca.
The integrity of our judging — how it works:
Five judges from across Canada are appointed by the Leacock Board of Directors for a term of approximately three years. The members of the jury remain anonymous throughout their tenure; as well, they have no contact whatsoever with one another.
Each entry is read by the judges and evaluated for effective use of humour, content and literary writing style, and given marks of one to twenty points. Each judge submits her/his top ten books to the awards chair for final scoring, with their first choice receiving a score of twelve, the second nine, the third eight and so forth.
The shortlist consists of the three books with the highest final scores, and the book with the highest score is declared the winner.
It is important to note that each judge acts independently in order to ensure fairness.
ON THIS PAGE:
Submission Form
Please see the Submission Instructions (below left) before filling in the form.
Electronic File Upload Facility
The winner for 2024 is Patrick deWitt for his novel The Librarianist, published by House of Anansi Press.
The winner for 2023 was Wayne Johnston for his memoir Jennie's Boy, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Canada.
The winner for 2022 was Rick Mercer for his memoir Talking to Canadians, published by Doubleday Canada.
The winner for 2021 was Thomas King for his novel Indians on Vacation, published by HarperCollins Publishers.
The winner for 2020 was Heidi L.M. Jacobs for her novel Molly of the Mall: Literary Lass and Purveyor of Fine Footwear, published by NeWest Press.
2019:
The winner for 2019 was Cathal Kelly for his book Boy Wonders, published by Doubleday Canada. See the video of an amusing interview about his book with TVO's Nam Kiwanuka.
2018:
The winner for 2018 was Jennifer Craig for her book Gone to Pot, published by Second City Press
The winner for 2017 was Gary Barwin with his book Yiddish for Pirates, published by Penguin Random House Canada. Read his acceptance speech.