Author Thomas King, in Toronto, on March 10, 2014.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Celebrated author Thomas King of Guelph, Ont., is this year’s winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour.
King, who is of Greek and Cherokee descent, was awarded the $15,000 prize Friday for his anti-travelogue, “Indians on Vacation.”
From HarperCollins Publishers, the title follows a Canadian couple on a peripatetic mission across Europe to recover a family medicine bundle.
Named after famed Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock, the prize is awarded annually for the best book in Canadian literary humour.
Organizers say King and 2020 winner Heidi Jacobs will be belatedly celebrated at a 2021 gala dinner in Orillia, Ont., after the festivities were cancelled by the COVID-19 crisis.
This year’s runners-up, who each receive $3,000, are Joseph Kertes for “Last Impressions,” from Penguin Random House, and Morgan Murray for “Dirty Birds,” published by Breakwater Books.
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