The NUS Singapore History Prize is an annual book award that honours scholarly works on the history of Singapore, administered by the Department of History at National University of Singapore. It aims to encourage the publication of work on Singapore history by providing an incentive in the form of a cash prize for publishing and disseminating such works. It is open to both fiction and nonfiction works that address a specific time period, theme or field of Singapore history or include a substantial aspect of Singapore history within the text.
The prize winner of the 2019 edition was a team called Team Empowered Families Initiative (EFI), a Singapore-based development organisation which works to help families living in poverty overcome challenges and improve their quality of life through a holistic approach to community and family development. The finalists were congratulated by the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the awards ceremony held at Marina Bay Sands on Thursday.
The 2023 Earthshot Prize will be hosted by Singapore for the first time, following previous ceremonies in London and Boston. Prince William said he was delighted to bring the award show to Southeast Asia, which is one of the worst-affected regions by climate change. “The Earthshot Prize is all about showing that solutions to some of our biggest environmental challenges are out there,” he added. The awards ceremony will be followed by a week-long series of events, known as Earthshot Week, to mobilise and scale innovative projects.
In the Singapore Literature Prize (SLP), eight out of 12 winners are first-time recipients, with a mix of seasoned and emerging writers. Tamil writer rma cureess, who won in both the English fiction and Readers’ Favourite Tamil categories, will make history as the program’s first winner to have her work shortlisted in three categories and two languages. She joins first-time winners alllkunilaa (Azhagunila), innnpaa (Inbha) and Jee Leong Koh, whose debut novel Snow at 5 PM: Translations of an Insignificant Japanese Poet won the English fiction category.
This year, the prize celebrates its 30th anniversary and the theme of this edition is resonance, a reference to how literature can trigger memories and emotions, and how it can affect people in different ways. The shortlisted works were praised for their insights into the lives of ordinary Singaporeans, including those in disadvantaged circumstances, and for exploring how social issues impact and connect us all. A total of 24 books were entered into this year’s competition, which received a record number of submissions from more than a hundred countries. The winning entries were selected by a panel of judges, comprising scholars and public figures from the arts, academia, business and media. The winners will receive a monetary prize of GBP 1 million (approximately USD 1.25 million or SGD 1.7 million). For a full list of this year’s winners, see the official website here. For a detailed breakdown of the prize’s history, see here.
