Ojibway writer Drew Hayden Taylor makes the long list for 2017 Leacock award

Wednesday, April 26th, 2017 1:28pm

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Update May 5, 2017: 

Drew Hayden Taylor’s Take Us to Your Chief has now made the shortlist for the 70th Anniversary Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour Award . The other finalists are Gary Barwin for Yiddish for Pirates and Amy Jones for We’re All In This Together.

The winner of the Leacock Medal and accompanying $15,000 prize will be announced at a gala dinner celebrating all three shortlisted authors June 10, 2017, at Geneva Park Conference Centre near Orillia, Ont.

Original story:

Drew Hayden Taylor, writer and humorist, has been longlisted for the 70th Anniversary Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour Award for his book Take Us to Your Chief, published by Douglas & McIntyre.

The Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour promotes the growth of Canadian humor writing and annually honors the best in Canadian literary humor.

Take Us to Your Chief is a contemporary First Nations reinterpretation of classic science-fiction stories. Peaceful aliens, hostile invaders, space and time travel are exposed to a new perspective, becoming variously mysterious, magical and humorous. Take Us to Your Chief is the perfect mesh of nostalgically 1950’s-esque science fiction with modern First Nations discourse.

Drew Hayden Taylor is an Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario and an award-winning playwright, journalist, short-story writer, novelist, commentator, scriptwriter and documentarian.

As a creator, he strives to educate and inform about issues that interfere with, reflect on and celebrate the lives of Canada’s First Nations.This year’s longlist will be narrowed down to a shortlist of three Leacock Medal finalists, who will be announced in Orillia on May 3, 2017.

The winner of the Leacock Medal and accompanying $15,000 prize will be announced at a gala dinner celebrating all three shortlisted authors June 10, 2017, at Geneva Park Conference Centre near Orillia, Ont.

For the complete longlist: https://leacock.ca/