Founded in 1967, the Singapore Prize is a biennial award that recognizes excellence in published literary works produced by Singaporean authors. The awards are sponsored by the National Book Development Council of Singapore and the National Library Board of Singapore. In addition to a cash prize of up to S$10,000, the winner will receive a gold medal and an award certificate. In its first year of operation, 43 writers submitted their works for consideration. A panel of eight judges selected the winners, including representatives from the government, the business and the media.
In the first year of the prize, 12 top prizes of S$10,000 were awarded to the winners. For the next two years, the competition has expanded to include an additional category. For the first time, the competition has also included a consumer choice award. In this category, 4,000 readers are asked to vote for the best book of the year. The winning book will receive a $50 voucher.
The panel of judges was chaired by Othman, a former journalist who is now the chairman of the National Literature Board, and consisted of representatives from the government and the business. The winner was announced on October 31st, 2017.
The prize recognises literary works published in any one of the four official languages: Chinese, Malay, English and Tamil. The authors shortlisted in the categories of fiction and poetry will compete with each other for the prizes. There will be 12 categories in total. The first year of the prize saw more than half of the shortlisted writers being newcomers. In the two years following, the prize has become a major award in the country.
For the next two years, the competition has been renamed as the Arcadis Singapore Medal. It is based on the number of A+, A and A grades received by students. The number of students gaining first class honours and the highest CAP are weighed in determining the award. The prize is a joint initiative of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore (URAS) and the Centre for Liveable Cities. The winners of the prize will be honored at an award ceremony in March 2018.
The prize has three main categories – a Gold Medal, a Silver Medal and a Meritorious Award. These awards are subject to the spending policies of the university. The winner of the Gold Medal will be awarded a one-off cash prize of S$20,000, while the winner of the Silver Medal will be awarded a one-off prize of S$10,000. In addition to the cash prize, the award recipient will receive a commemorative plaque and a mentoring session by alumni.
In addition to the cash prizes, the competition also offers production services packages and audio-visual features for the winners. In 2017, the winner of the prize was the short film “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” by Alvin Lee, which carries an online DCP package worth SGD10,500. Another winning film was “Vania on Lima Street” by Le Lam Vien, which carries a production services package of SGD15,000 from Shooting Gallery Asia.