The award is given to a person or group of people who have done extraordinary work over an extended period to improve the lives of their community. This may include projects that address issues such as poverty, homelessness, racial and religious discrimination or the protection of the environment. The winner of the prize will be notified in October each year and receives a grant of $200,000 from the Government of Singapore to implement their project. The winner must agree to share their results with the community and provide details on how they used the prize money.
Khir Johari’s mammoth tome The Food of the Singapore Malays: Gastronomic Travels Through the Archipelago has won the NUS History Prize, the largest sum ever paid out for a Singapore book. The prize was established in 2014 and aims to encourage engagement with Singapore’s history by making it more accessible to non-academic readers. The prize was also designed to make the complexities and nuances of Singapore’s history more understandable, and to promote a sense of shared history amongst Singaporeans.
Celebrities including actor Donnie Yen and Australian wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin joined Britain’s Prince William for Asia’s first Green Carpet awards ceremony in Singapore. The prize was announced in five categories ranging from solar-powered dryers to combat food waste to making electric car batteries cleaner. William praised the winners, saying their solutions showed that “hope is not lost” as climate change continues to take its toll on the planet.
Despite being the youngest recipient of the prize, Cyril Wong has built a career as a poet and fiction writer in Singapore. He studied in the US and UK, winning scholarships from the National Arts Council and the National University of Singapore. He has also published his work in international magazines and anthologies. He has been a two-time winner of the Singapore Literature Prize, and his work has been translated into Tamil, Chinese and Malay.
The 2024 Singapore Prize was open to books in English (written or translated), and other creative works with clear historical themes, which were published between 1 June 2021 and 31 May 2024. Nominations could cover any time period, theme or field of Singaporean history, and may be authored or co-authored.
In a show of support for the winners, 4,000 Singaporeans voted online in the consumer choice category, more than twice the number of voters in last year’s vote. The shortlisted writers – Ali bin Salim, Daryl Qilin Yam, Pan Zheng Lei (Pan Cheng Lui) and rma cureess – each received cash prizes of 1,000 Singapore dollars, while book-purchase vouchers were awarded to the readers’ top three choices. You can see the full list of nominees, categorized by language, here. You can also read a complete breakdown of the prize’s criteria here. Alternatively, you can visit this link to find out more about the history of the prize. You can also read more about the story of Kishore Mahbubani, the former diplomat who chaired this year’s panel of judges.
