Happiness Economics — Shari Lapena

Shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

Will Thorne is a slightly published, stalled poet, married to Judy, a successful celebrity economist who doesnt understand him, or poetry, at all. Pressured by a fellow poet, Will starts The Poets Preservation Society, a genteel organization to help poets in need. But in order to persuade his high-powered wife to get him the necessary funding, Will must make a devils bargain with her: he will write advertising slogans so that he can, in Judys words, contribute to society. Writing slogans for toilet paper and spending his free time on the administrative work for the society, Will has neither the time nor the inspiration to finish his novel in poems. But when Will meets his muse, the enigmatic and athletic Lily White, he becomes inspired not only to write poetry, but to take guerrilla action in support of poets everywhere. Poetry meets parkour and culture clashes with commerce in this hilarious look at how we measure the value of art. Happiness Economics is a comic novel about a poets heroic struggle to create, in the face of cultural and domestic impediments.