The Singapore Prize and Other Literature Prizes
The Singapore prize is an award given annually to a book in English that has made a significant impact on our understanding of the history of Singapore. The work can be non-fiction or fiction and may be authored by any Singaporean or permanent resident. A work must contain a significant Singapore element and be published between 1 June 2021 and 31 May 2024 to qualify.
The prize is a recognition of the value of quality writing and research, as well as a push for more writers to take up this task. The prize is awarded by the National University of Singapore’s Department of History, and was created in 2014 to encourage a broader engagement with the complex and textured nature of Singapore’s past.
Singapore has laws regulating gambling, but prize promotions and competitions are specifically excluded from the betting and sweepstake duties under the Betting and Sweepstake Duties Act. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the legal implications of such activities, especially if you want to run a contest or promote a competition in Singapore.
Athletes in pursuit of Olympic glory require enormous financial investments over the course of years. This is why the Singapore National Olympic Council developed a special incentive scheme to reward medal-winning athletes. Today, the Major Games Award Programme pays a minimum of 20 per cent of the gold-medal winning prize money to medalists for their contributions towards building the nation through sports.
Britain’s Prince William is heading to Singapore next month to name the winners of his Earthshot Prize, a global competition designed to find solutions to climate change. The award ceremony will be accompanied by a series of events, and the prince will meet with local groups that are working to protect and restore the environment.
The NUS Singapore History Prize is an annual literary award that recognizes an outstanding publication on the history of Singapore. The prize seeks to broaden the definition of what constitutes history by encouraging writing that deals with the complexities and nuances of Singapore’s past, from new and established authors alike.
This year, the prize received entries from both fiction and nonfiction, including a biography, an art history book, a social history, a military history, and a work of creative nonfiction. Among the shortlisted works was Sembawang, a novel that follows an extended family’s experience during the leftist political movements and mass detentions in the 1950s.
Four writers beat out the competition to lay claim to this year’s Readers’ Favorite award. The winners — Ali bin Salim, Daryl Qilin Yam, Pan Zheng Lei (Pan Cheng Lui), and rma cureess (Rama Suresh) — each receive a cash prize of 1,000 Singapore dollars, while voters stand the chance to win book-purchase vouchers worth 50 Singapore dollars. Each of the 12 category winners also get a hand-crafted trophy and an audiobook code from StoryTel. The complete list of shortlisted books and authors, categorized by language, can be found here.