The Singapore Prize is a biennial award in the island state of singapore to recognise outstanding published works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The competition is held in the languages of Singapore – Chinese, English and Malay. The prize offers 12 top prizes of up to $10,000 each for writers of the highest calibre, across all four languages.
A new book about a small community in Singapore’s north-east has been shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize. The book is by Kamaladevi Pillai, an award-winning writer who has penned several novels and plays for theatre. The book, entitled Sembawang, follows the experiences of a group of people living in the district from the 1960s to the 1980s. It is based on personal interviews and research.
The book is up against a memoir about a Singaporean’s journey with her family during the COVID-19 pandemic. The book, by Jeremy Tiang, is called State Of Emergency. The story is told through the lens of a family, including its members’ political activism and their experience with the government’s detention regime. It is the first time that an English language book has been shortlisted for the Singapore Literature prize.
NUS historian Kishore Mahbubani, who mooted the prize in a 2014 column for The Straits Times, said that the prize is an attempt to give greater depth and resonance to Singapore’s story. He added that the prize also reflects his belief that “the famous American social scientist Benedict Anderson once said that nations are ‘imagined communities’ and a shared imagination, especially in history, is a critical glue holding societies together.”
The prize was inaugurated in 2021 and has awarded two titles so far. Last year’s winner was Leluhur: Singapore Kampong Gelam by NUS Press historian John Miksic. The prize is open to non-fiction and fiction work from around the world as long as they have clear historical themes about Singapore.
The prize is administered by the Department of History at NUS. Its selection panel includes academics from all over the world and representatives of organisations in the publishing industry. It is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. It is the first time that the prize has had an international jury. This year, the jury will be chaired by Jeremy Tiang, a New York-based author. The prize will be presented at the Singapore Writers’ Festival, which runs from 26 November to 2 December. It will be presented in partnership with Conservation International, which has a track record of working globally to spotlight and secure the benefits of nature for all. It will connect the winners with a network of partners committed to scalable, impactful environmental solutions. For more information on the event, click here.