Calgary writer Natalie Sue wins for $25K Leacock Medal for humour writing

CBC Books

· Posted: Jun 23, 2025 1:42 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

Calgary writer Natalie Sue has won the 2025 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for her novel I Hope This Finds You Well.

The $25,000 prize is 1 of the oldest of its kind, established successful 1947 to enactment the maturation of Canadian humour writing.

I Hope This Finds You Well follows Jolene, an anxious admin for Supershops, Inc., arsenic she navigates a workplace of unsatisfactory colleagues. 

Jolene copes with the frustrations of her bureau occupation done passive assertive messages successful emails that are ne'er meant to beryllium seen. 

• Calgary writer Natalie Sue revels successful the humour of errant enactment emails and bureau rivalries successful debut novel

When she is caught and reprimanded, an IT mishap results successful her having entree to the confidential messages of her superiors. Can Jolene usage this to the vantage of her career? 

Sue is simply a Calgary-based writer of Iranian and British descent. I Hope This Finds You Well is her debut caller and was besides nominated for the 2025 Amazon First Novel Award. 

LISTEN | Natalie Sue discusses her debut novel I Hope This Finds You Well: 

The shortlisted authors, Greg Kearney, for An Evening With Birdy O'Day, and Patricia J. Parsons, for We Came From Away, each person $5,000. The winners were selected from a Canada-wide sheet of judges.

The prize is named successful honour of Ontario writer Stephen Leacock, a humorist and fashionable writer successful the archetypal fractional of the 20th century. His books include Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, published successful 1912, and Literary Lapses, published successful 1910.

The prize has been funded by the Dunkley Charitable Foundation since the autumn of 2020. The enactment is based in Orillia, Ont., the municipality that inspired the fictional assemblage of Mariposa in Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. Leacock had a summertime property there.

Last year's victor was Patrick deWitt for The Librarianist.  

Other past winners see Wayne Johnston, Heidi L.M Jacobs, Robertson Davies, Pierre Berton, Farley Mowat, Paul Quarrington, Mordecai Richler, Stuart McLean, Terry Fallis, Susan Juby and Cassie Stocks.