The winner of the 2019 Singapore Prize, a biennial award in which the nation honors groundbreaking research and innovation, has just been announced. Professors and teams that have pushed the boundaries of scientific discovery will receive awards from the President’s Science and Technology Award (PSTA) program. The award ceremony was held at the National Museum of Singapore on Nov. 7. British Prince William hosted the event, and he and other presenters walked what organizers called the “green carpet.” They wore sustainable clothing, such as 10-year-old dark green blazers from Alexander McQueen and a navy blue dress by McCartney, known for its eco-friendly line. Bands One Republic and Bastille and singer Bebe Rexha performed for the crowd.
This year’s theme for the prize is resonance, which refers to how literature triggers emotions and memories. The judging panel said the 2023 winners exhibited “the ability to reach beyond their own fields of study, bringing fresh perspectives and new insights to the human condition.”
Prasanthi Ram’s short story cycle Nine Yard Sarees was named winner in the English fiction category, while Chang Wen-li’s essay collection Taking Care of Business took home the Chinese nonfiction prize. The judges praised the work for “skilful, assured, comedic at times, and profoundly moving.” In the English poetry category, writer Cyril Wong won for his work, which they described as “darkly funny, yet deeply affecting,” in which he examines the relationship between mothers and daughters. The winners received a cash prize of $10,000, a trophy, and a 12-month Storytel audiobook subscription.
In the category of literary translation, Jeremy Tiang won for his translation of Chinese author Zhang Yueran’s Cocoon (2022). Judges described the book as “striking in its total lack of compromise or seriousness and its over-the-top audacity and absurdity.” The other winners of the prize include self-published Cockman by Kenfoo, which won the inaugural English comic or graphic novel award; and SG50-centric novels Nimita’s Place by Straits Times journalist Akshita Nanda and Lion City by Chia Joo Ming, both published by Epigram Books.
The NUS Singapore History Prize was founded in 1992 and is the only prize in the country that seeks to promote engagement with Singapore’s history broadly understood. The prize is open to works from all genres and languages, including pre-1819 Singaporean history as well as the wider context of Singapore’s place in Asia. This year, the prize also aims to make Singapore’s historical complexities and nuances more accessible to a broader general readership, while stimulating a deeper appreciation of the richness and diversity of our unique heritage.