Rupinder Gill is nominated for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for On the Outside Looking Indian. Rupinder Gill is nominated for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for On the Outside Looking Indian. (Stephen Leacock Association)Four funny Canadian women have made the short list for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, an award that is usually dominated by men.

Over the last 20 years, 19 winners of the award for the best Canadian book of humour written in the previous year have been men. The short lists also tend to be dominated by male writers.

But in 2012, four of the five books nominated are written by women. The five final novels were chosen as the funniest from among 64 nominees. Woefield Poultry Collective is by Susan Juby. HarperCollinsWoefield Poultry Collective is by Susan Juby. HarperCollins

The single male contender is big competition – Patrick deWitt for his Writers’ Trust-winning novel The Sisters Brothers, which was a big favourite among Canadian readers last year.

The other nominees:

  • The Woefield Poultry Collective, by Susan Juby of Nanaimo, B.C.
  • On the Outside Looking Indian, by Rupinder Gill of Toronto.
  • Happiness Economics by Shari Lapena of Toronto.
  • Most of Me by Robyn Michele Levy of Vancouver.

The Stephen Leacock Association president Michael Hill announced the short list on Monday.

The winner will be named April 26 at the Mariposa Inn in Orillia, the little town that Leacock himself satirized in his Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.