The Singapore Prize 2020 Shortlist
The Singapore prize is an award given for outstanding books published in the country. It is administered by the National Book Development Council of Singapore, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the National Arts Council. The winner of the prize receives a cash award and a trophy. The prize is open to authors of both fiction and non-fiction who write in any of the four official languages of Singapore: Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. The first prize was awarded in 2014, and is a component of the SG50 programme to celebrate Singapore’s 50th anniversary of independence.
This year’s shortlist for the Singapore prize features novels and non-fiction with a personal slant. Several works challenge the traditional view of history as the record of big movers and shakers, with authors writing about their own experiences in Singapore. This includes Kamaladevi Aravindan’s novel Sembawang (2020, available here), which recounts life in a suburban estate across decades, and historians Kwa Chong Guan, Tan Tai Yong, Peter Borschberg and Derek Heng’s Seven Hundred Years: A History Of Singapore.
In addition to the prize, an abridged version of each winning entry is published in The Straits Times, and the authors are invited to attend a presentation ceremony and Q&A session to mark the milestone. The winners and the nominated works are also exhibited at the National Library of Singapore.
The first prize was awarded to John Miksic for his work Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea, 1300-1800, which demonstrates that archaeological records suggest Temasek existed as an urban centre long before Sir Stamford Raffles arrived in 1819. His book also explains how literary references and undisturbed layers of soil containing glass shards and bronze bowls point to an early presence in the area.
Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, will visit Singapore in November to host a global summit on protecting and restoring the planet, organised by the United for Wildlife organisation he launched in 2020. He will join representatives from law enforcement agencies, conservation groups and corporations to discuss ways to stop the illegal trade in wildlife products, estimated to be worth $20 billion a year.
A distinguished Jury Panel chaired by Mr Mahbubani will select the winning entry towards the end of October 2024. Its members include Associate Professor Joey Long of the NUS Department of History; Foo Hai Fellow in Buddhist Studies Associate Prof Jack Meng-Tat Chia of the NUS Department of Southeast Asian Studies; Senior Curator Dr Seng Yu Jin of the National Gallery of Singapore; and academics Prof Lam San Ling, Prof Peter A. Coclanis and Ms Jean Tay.