NEWS RELEASE
STEPHEN LEACOCK ASSOCIATES
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The board of Stephen Leacock Associates is pleased to announce that Heidi L. M. Jacobs is the winner of the 2020 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for her novel Molly of the Mall: Literary Lass and Purveyor of Fine Footwear, published by NeWest Press.
The award of the medal is accompanied by a prize of $15,000.
Heidi L.M. Jacobs was born and raised in Edmonton. While attending the University of Alberta, she worked in a wide variety of retail jobs, including selling shoes. She is currently the English and History Librarian at the University of Windsor.
The two runners-up, Amy Spurway (for her novel CROW, published by Goose Lane Editions) and Drew Hayden Taylor (for his play Cottagers and Indians, published by Talonbooks), will each receive a prize of $3,000.
The board congratulates all the winners for their splendid efforts. It also acknowledges and appreciates the efforts of all the authors of the books submitted for this year's medal.
A Canada-wide panel of readers and judges had narrowed 84 initial submissions to form a longlist of 11 highly recommended works, with only three books eventually being selected for the shortlist.
Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the medal and cash prizes will not be awarded at the usual Gala Dinner but will be mailed to the winners. The authors' achievements will be celebrated instead at next year's Gala Dinner, in 2021.
The Leacock Medal is named in memory of Stephen Leacock; humourist, author, economist and lecturer.
More information about the Leacock Medal is available on the Leacock Associates’ website at leacock.ca, on the Leacock Medal Facebook page, and on Twitter @LeacockMedal.
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