In this episode of ST’s award show series, we feature the winners of the Singapore Prize, which celebrates books and authors that champion mindsets and values important to shaping the nation. Founded with a $1 million donation from Confucian scholar Alan Chan, the prize is the richest among Singapore book awards. It was launched in April by SUSS, with a ceremony hosted by Emmy-winner Hannah Waddingham and three-time Emmy winner Sterling K Brown.
A lecturer from Nanyang Technological University has won this year’s Singapore Prize for English fiction with a short story titled ‘Nine Yard Sarees’. The novella is an ode to women’s power, and the winning entry was praised by judges for its ability to draw readers into a world where power dynamics are shifting and the traditional structure of gender roles is being challenged.
The prize is a biennial literary accolade by Singapore Press Holdings that honours both published and unpublished works. It aims to identify, promote and celebrate authors and their work, and encourage the reading habits of Singaporeans. The prize is open to both local and foreign authors, with each category judged by a panel of experts from the fields of literature, arts, media, public service and academia. The top five books in each of the six categories receive a cash prize, while the runners-up in each category and the judges’ favourite will be awarded with book vouchers.
This year’s Singapore Prize saw a record number of submissions, with 224 entries across the four categories. The winners were announced at a ceremony at the Esplanade on Saturday, attended by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and with music from Bastille, OneRepublic, Lana Condor, and Donnie Yen. The ceremony also featured the presentation of the inaugural Dr Alan HJ Chan Spirit of Singapore Book Prize, which was a special award presented to authors whose writings champion mindsets and values that are crucial to the nation’s development.
The award, which is the richest among all Singapore book prizes and the only one that recognises works in both English and Chinese, was a new category this year and was established through a $1 million donation from the Chan family. Its judging panel was headed by former diplomat Kishore Mahbubani, who also chairs the prize’s jury. He said in his speech that the 21st century will be defined by how well Singapore develops its national identity, which requires a firm grounding in a shared history. The other members of the jury were Foo Hai Fellow in Buddhist Studies and Associate Professor Jack Meng-Tat Chia from the Department of History at NUS; Senior Curator Dr Seng Yu Jin of the National Gallery Singapore; and playwright Ms Jean Tay. In the 2024 NUS Singapore History Prize, Wesley Leon Aroozoo’s The Punkhawala and the Prostitute won first runner-up, while Khir Johari’s The Food of the Singapore Malays took the second runner-up spot. The book is the most comprehensive yet on the cuisine of the multiethnic archipelago, and took 14 years to complete from conception to publication.