This year the Singapore Prize has been revamped to recognise literature in each of the city state’s four languages. While the prize continues to reward the best fiction, non-fiction and poetry published in Singapore’s official Chinese, Malay and Tamil languages, it now also includes the prize for English writing. Its winners will be awarded $3,000 and a trophy. In the English category, Straits Times journalist Akshita Nanda’s debut novel Nimita’s Place won for its examination of two women navigating society’s expectations in India and Singapore, while speculative short story collection Lion City by writer Sharlene Wen-Ning Teo claimed top honours in the English fiction category. Epigram Books titles took the Chinese and Malay non-fiction prizes, with Kian Kok by Chia Joo Ming’s SG50-centric novel about a lost housing estate in the city’s north scooping the Chinese fiction prize. And in the Malay non-fiction category, Timothy P. Barnard’s edifying book Comfort Women of Singapore in History and Memory beat out Khir Johari’s tome The Food of the Singapore Malays: Gastronomic Travels Through the Archipelago, which was published by Marshall Cavendish earlier this year.
Across the globe, people are increasingly aware of the need to protect the environment and embrace sustainable practices, and this was reflected in the winning entries of this year’s Earthshot Prize. Britain’s Prince William walked the green carpet alongside celebrities like Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, actors Donnie Yen and Lana Condor, and Australian animal conservationist Robert Irwin at the ceremony in Singapore, where he said solutions presented by the five winners – ranging from solar dryers to fighting waste management strategies to making electric car batteries cleaner – offered hope despite the devastating impact of climate change felt worldwide.
Another green accolade was the President’s Science and Technology Awards, which is now in its sixth edition. This prize was launched in 1988 to celebrate Singapore’s nascent science and technology landscape, with the top award given to researchers who have made significant contributions to pushing the boundaries of research and innovation. The other awards are the President’s Technology Award and the Young Scientist Award. The award winners were honoured at the gala dinner on Tuesday night. The full list of winners can be found here.