As part of the celebrations for Singapore’s 50th anniversary this year, the city-state’s prize for history aims to encourage locals to learn more about their past. The book prize is not open to fiction or creative works but only to books that have a strong historical theme. The winner, announced in October, will receive a cash prize of $100,000. The winning book will also be awarded a plaque at the National Library of Singapore. Kishore Mahbubani, Distinguished Fellow at the NUS Asia Research Institute and the prize’s jury chair, said the idea behind the book prize was to recognise the importance of the nation’s collective memory. He also said that nations were often “imagined communities” and that a shared imagination was a key glue that held societies together. “The best way to understand our present is to know where we came from,” he added.
A total of 17 writers, translators and comic artists were honoured at this year’s ceremony, which saw the debut of a new English graphic novel category and a record number of submissions. Lecturer Yong Shu Hoong, who has won in the poetry category previously, took home the award for his sixth collection, Anatomy of A Wave. The inaugural Readers’ Favourite Award went to 91-year-old National University of Singapore Professor Emeritus Peter Ellinger for Down Memory Lane: The Memoirs Of Peter Ellinger (2024).
Among the winners of the history category were Leluhur: Singapore Kampong Glam (1400-1900) by Xiao Qin and The Life Of A Soldier In Singapore By KTM Iqbal, which both drew on primary sources to reveal how war transformed soldiers. The winner of the non-fiction category, meanwhile, was Shubigi Rao for Pulp III: An Intimate Inventory Of The Banished Book (2022), the third instalment of her project on banished books.
The event was broadcast live and streamed online by the organiser, the Singapore Book Council. It was attended by a host of high-profile guests, including actor Sterling K. Brown and actress Cate Blanchett. The ceremony also marked the launch of Earthshot Week, which will see global leaders and businesses convene in Singapore to explore exciting opportunities aimed at accelerating solutions and bringing about tangible action to repair the planet.
Besides the book prize, the award also recognises excellence in education and public service. The Singapore Prize’s Nominating Committee and the jury — made up of five experts from academia, the arts and the civil service — reviewed 224 books for consideration this year. They selected the six finalists who will be announced in Oct.