Here's your chance to win some money to help with your university or college education, or some other purpose of your choosing (we don't ask what!). We offer cash prizes as indicated below for your humorous short story or essay. Please see the details below.
STEPHEN LEACOCK STUDENT HUMOROUS SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2024
April 15, 2024: Deadline for submissions.
May 15, 2024: Announcement of winners
June 21, 2024: Winners will read their works at the Meet the Authors evening, and will receive their awards.
Entering your essay on-line:
Sending entries by mail:
The three winners will be honoured at the Meet the Authors Night, the Friday of the Leacock Gala Weekend, June 21, 2024, and will read their stories that evening, as part of the program.
Each will receive a Gift Certificate towards a humour book of their choice from Manticore Books who will be onsite that evening. As well, they will hear excerpts from the books of the finalists for The Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and get to meet these and other professional authors.
The first-place winner will also receive two tickets for the Gala Dinner on Saturday, June 22, 2024, at which the winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour will be announced.
Inquiries may be made by email to Christine Spear, Registrar - Student Awards, at studentawards@leacock.ca.
To make judging as fair as possible, all entries are judged blind. Entries are opened on arrival in Orillia by a disinterested party who removes the cover page and assigns a number to the entry. The number is placed in a register, along with the student’s name and school, and the numbered entry is then passed to the committee. The register is not returned to the committee until the judging is complete.
We have three judges (they change every two years or so), who are all published authors. Many over the years have been winners of, or short-listed for, the Leacock Medal for Humour.
The judges rank and assess each work according to merit criteria, and the highest ranked three are considered winners.
An excellent module for the post-secondary teaching of humour is available FREE from Stephen Leacock Associates.
(You will need Adobe Reader to display the contents)
Types of Humour in Literature (a mini-guide to humour in literature)
There were no competitions in 2019 and 2020.
Port and Starbucks by Sylvie Potje, Winner, 2024
War, Sports, and Massage Parlours, Marcus DiCerbo, Runner-up, 2024
Twintuition, Iris Matthews, Runner-up, 2024
The Elephant in the Room(ba), by Sylvie Potje, Winner, 2023
As An Immigrant, Do I Have The Right To Write The Title?, by Chiara Alfinito, Second Place, 2023
The Eighth Wonder of the World, by Lillian Guo, Third Place Tie, 2023
Adventures on the DraftKings™ Trans-Canada Highway by Cyrus Sarfaty, Third Place Tie, 2023
Any Title Will Do, It’s Simply Rubbish, by Amy Ghobrial, Winner, 2022
Nothing Ever Changes in Fairytale Forest, by George Vanderlaan, Second Place, 2022
DisORDERly Conduct, by Bethany Robert, Third Place, 2022
A Regrettable Afternoon, as told by Gordon R. Ibitt, by Vincenzo Fracassi, Winner, 2021
A Samosa By Any Other Name, by Bethany Robert, Second Place, 2021
Froyo Fables of Forestville, by Caius Harbridge, Third Place, 2021
G.R.A.M.M.A.R., by Atara Juroviesky, Winner, 2018
McMission Impossible, by Sydney Force, Second Place, 2018
The Zoo, by Naama Weingarten, Third Place, 2018
The Name Game, by Ben Wrixon, Winner, 2017
Shocking Discovery: The Elusive Elderly Teenager by Lauren Radigan, Second Place, 2017
The Hair King Experience, by Narayan Subramoniam, Third Place, 2017
Orange to the Thigh, by Ben Wrixon, Second Place, 2016