Leacock Medal shortlist revealed

The Stephen Leacock Associates have announced the shortlist for the 2025 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. This year’s finalists are competing for the prestigious Leacock Medal and a $25,000 prize. The shortlisted author’s are: Meredith Hambrock, She's a Lamb; Susin Nielsen, SNAP; and Mark Waddell, Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World.

That’s all good and fine but we are here to celebrate Bryn Pottie, one of the long listers we love. He asked us to post about the short list in April and we said “Yes!” and now it’s almost June so here you go. It’s still an accomplishment.

Liverpool author and Parton and Pearl contributor Bryn Pottie was named to the longlist for the prestigious Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for his debut novel, The Great Lunenburglary, bringing a uniquely Nova Scotian story to the national stage.

For 79 years, the annual $25,000 dollar prize has recognized excellence in Canadian literary humour. Past winners have included Will Ferguson, W.O. Mitchell, Stuart McLean and Mordecai Richler. In addition to Bryn Pottie, this year's longlist included humour heavy hitters such as Mark Critch and Terry Fallis.

“It’s a great honour to be a Leacock longlister!” says author Bryn Pottie. “I worked hard on this book and it’s great to be recognized by an even more prestigious group than my mom and her friends at the library. Any history book will show you that the Nova Scotian story has always been full of hard, serious work. But this place is pretty silly and ridiculous, too, and I wanted to write something to highlight that.”

Set in 1922 Lunenburg, The Great Lunenburglary tells the story of two teenagers who steal the Bluenose. Blending historical fiction with absurdist comedy, the novel delivers a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud caper rooted in local culture and storytelling traditions. It was released in June 2025 by Nova Scotia's Moose House Publications.

“It’s ironic that Bryn Pottie and Moose House are producing this level of quality at the same time our provincial government is cutting funding for publishers who provide opportunities for this level of writing,” says Moose House publisher Brenda Thompson.

After a year of steady local sales, national retail chain Indigo named The Great Lunenburglary one of Canada’s best regional books of 2025.

“The Great Lunenburglary is a kilometre-a-minute laugh riot with endless re-readability,” says Bridgewater Coles manager Justin Robar, “I'd recommend this book to anyone; there's probably no one in Nova Scotia that I haven't already!”

The winner of the Leacock Medal and $25,000 prize will be celebrated at a gala dinner in Orillia, Ontario on June 20. Get your copy of The Great Lunenburglary here.