The Singapore Prize is the country’s highest literary award. It is awarded biennially in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil to a work of fiction or non-fiction that has been published in Singapore. The winners of the prize are given a cash prize and a citation, as well as a chance to receive more recognition and promotion for their works.
The winner of the prize will be selected by a panel of judges who are well-known writers and intellectuals in Singapore. The panel will also take into account the public’s feedback when deciding on the final winner. The winner of the prize will be notified by email or letter and presented with their citation and award at a ceremony held in the National Library of Singapore.
This year, the prize celebrates the theme of “imagination and identity”, reflecting on how a shared imagination is one of the key glues that holds societies together today. The Prize will honour works that reflect and explore the way our identities shape us, and how these are shaped by our shared history.
In a nod to the prize’s roots in nation-building, this year’s shortlist includes a memoir and a novel that focus on average Singaporeans. The prize hopes to “stimulate engagement with Singapore’s history broadly understood”, make the nuances of history more accessible and generate greater understanding among Singaporeans, according to a press release from NUS.
The inaugural award was given out in 2018 to archaeologist John Miksic for his book Singapore And The Silk Road Of The Sea, 1300 – 1800. The 2019 winner is historian Hidayah Ibrahim for her book Home Is Where We Are. She said the prize “shows that you don’t have to be a professional historian, but you can write about your experiences, what it was like growing up and what events meant to you”.
Sportsmanship is important in building a strong society, says the organisers of the President’s Science and Technology Awards. When the awards were first introduced in 1967, then President Othman Wok believed that athletes could promote the idea of the Singapore nation by bringing people together through sport. The awards have since grown to include more scientific fields and have been elevated to Presidential status.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore began testing wastewater for traces of the disease to monitor outbreaks more closely, mirroring efforts in other countries. The success of this method was largely due to the research done by Professor Gertjan Medema, who received this year’s Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize for his contributions in advancing wastewater-based epidemiology.
The prestigious Nobel Prize is awarded for discoveries that have had a profound influence on the human condition and benefited the welfare of mankind. The Singapore Prize, which is based on the Nobel’s principles, is similar to the Nobel, with winners gaining international recognition and promotion for their works. It is considered one of the most prestigious prizes in the world and has been described as the “Singapore Nobel”. Winners have included prominent figures such as former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and physician Sir Alex Gawronski.