The Singapore prize is a series of awards given by the Singapore Book Publishers Association (SBPA) that recognise the best in Singapore publishing. The awards are given in a number of categories including literary work, education titles, professional titles and children’s books, as well as non-fiction. A prestigious Book of the Year title is chosen from the subsidiary award winners. The books must meet the following criteria: i) They must be published in one of the four official languages of Singapore. ii) They must be legally deposited with the National Library Board and iii) They must have a physical presence in retail stores locally and/or internationally.
The NUS Singapore History Prize was launched in 2014 with an endowed gift from an anonymous donor. It is awarded every three years to a publication in English that makes an outstanding contribution to our understanding of Singapore’s history. The NUS Singapore History Prize is open to works authored or translated into English, and may address any period, theme or field of Singapore’s history.
Singapore’s 2024 shortlist for the biennial Singapore Literature Prize includes a mix of new and veteran writers for novels, creative nonfiction and poetry in English. For fiction, Myle Yan Tay’s debut novel catskull is up against Cultural Medallion winner Suchen Christine Lim’s Dearest Intimate. Both are also authors of previous SLP winners.
The SLP’s other main category, for literature in the mother tongue of Singapore, includes works in Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Despite a smaller pool of submissions this year, the competition is as fierce as ever, with the shortlist featuring an eclectic group of 49 titles.
In the Reader’s Choice, the top picks went to Ali Bin Salim for his novel Until We Are Free (2024) and Daryl Qilin Yam for his memoir Down Memory Lane: A Journey Through Singapore’s Past (2023). The 91-year-old emeritus professor of history at the National University of Singapore was the oldest winner of this category in the prize’s history.
A separate Reader’s Choice award for Malay literature was won by Si Min, whose third book Jalan Journey: A Virtual Experiential Learning Experience For Youths (2023) is about the work of a social enterprise that helps to boost the self-esteem of disadvantaged youths. Similarly, the winner of the Chinese language poetry prize was Edwin Thumboo for his collection Poetry of a Place and Time (2023).
The Singapore Prize is a US$100,000 award that honours people from any country who have gone “above and beyond” to show compassion and care for others in a way that has transformed their lives. The judges say they are looking for “a story of a person who has touched and transformed the lives of those around them” and have an “impact that will inspire others to do the same.” The winners were announced at a ceremony attended by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The event was hosted by Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and co-hosted by the American Embassy in Singapore.