ORILLIA, Ont. -- Hamilton author Gary Barwin has won the 2017 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour.
Barwin was recognized for "Yiddish for Pirates" (Random House Canada) at a gala in Orillia, Ont., on Saturday night.
The acclaimed novel was also a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize last year.
"Yiddish for Pirates" is set in the years around 1492, and tells the story of a boy who leaves home to join a ship's crew where he meets a polyglot parrot who becomes his near-constant companion.
Named after famed Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock, the prize is awarded annually for the best book in Canadian literary humour and is accompanied by a $15,000 prize from TD Bank Financial Group.
Other finalists were Halifax-born, Thunder Bay, Ont.-based Amy Jones for her debut novel "We're All in This Together" (McClelland & Stewart), and Ojibwa playwright, author and humorist Drew Hayden Taylor from the Curve Lake First Nations near Peterborough, Ont., for "Take Us to Your Chief: And Other Stories" (Douglas & McIntyre).
