Singapore Prize 2023 Winners Announced
In the 2023 edition of Singapore prize, public voting will take place to select the winners from six nominees. The winning scientists will receive cash prizes, certificates of appreciation for their contributions to society, and the honour of being honoured by a President’s Award. The awards, first known as the National Science and Technology Awards and later elevated to Presidential status in 2009, are Singapore’s highest honour for its scientists.
The judging panel of the Singapore prize will include experts from a variety of fields, including economics and entrepreneurship, social work, and public policy. The judges will consider the impact of the submission on the community, its ability to make a positive difference to people’s lives, and how it has been commercially viable.
This year’s prize will focus on “resonance”, the idea that a book can trigger emotions and memories in readers. The theme is particularly relevant this time, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause havoc across Singapore.
A 74-year-old tailor from a working-class neighbourhood has won a special mention for his book on his family’s history in Singapore. Chui Seng Wah didn’t set out to compile his memoirs, but was encouraged by his wife and daughters. He started looking into old photos and documents and talking to his relatives. His prize-winning entry, Home Is Where the Heart Is (2019), reveals how his late father and mother were migrant workers who built up a successful business in TOTO’s Asia division.
Singapore’s prestigious biennial literary prize awarded 12 winners in the 2022 competition, which is open to writers in Chinese, English, Malay, and Tamil. A record number of writers – 43 in total – were shortlisted for this year’s contest, and five were nominated in two or more categories.
This is the first year the Singapore literature prize has included a category for poetry. The other prizes are fiction, non-fiction, and creative nonfiction in Chinese, English, and Malay; and Chinese and English poetry.
The jury for the Singapore prize was chaired by Kishore Mahbubani, NUS Asia Research Institute distinguished fellow; novelist Meira Chand; historian and archaeologist John Miksic from the NUS Department of Southeast Asian Studies; economist Lam San Ling; and author Peter Coclanis. The judges will announce the winner in October 2024.
Shelly Bryant is a writer and translator who divides her time between Shanghai and Singapore. She has translated work from the Chinese for Penguin Books, Epigram Publishing, the National Library Board in Singapore, and Giramondo Books. Her translation of Sheng Keyi’s Northern Girls was long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize, and her translation of You Jin’s In Time Out of Place was a finalist for the Singapore Literature Prize. She also edits poetry anthologies for Alban Lake and Celestial Books.