A maker of solar-powered dryers, a soil carbon marketplace and groups that make electric car batteries cleaner, restore Andean forests and deter illegal fishing are among the companies who were awarded hefty prize money at an event in Singapore. Prince William, whose Royal Foundation charity launched the 10-year award program in 2020, said at Tuesday’s ceremony that the solutions presented by all 15 finalists proved that “hope does remain as we face an environmental crisis.”
The pool of submissions for this biennial prize was smaller than in 2020, an effect of the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, organizers say. But there are some interesting distinctions in this year’s shortlist, which includes the first time a writer has been shortlisted in both the English and Chinese poetry categories and the first time that a nonagenarian is included in the list. Wang Gungwu in the English creative nonfiction category and Suratman Markasan in the Malay nonfiction category both make that list at 91, making them the oldest writers ever shortlisted for this prize.
This is a selection of stories about singapore prize from the Publishing Perspectives database of book-related news and analysis. To see a complete list of titles, and to get full access to this content and all our research, sign up for a free trial membership today.
It was a day of firsts at this year’s awards ceremony for the National Arts Council’s (NAC) Young Artist Awards, with an artist winning in each of the four categories. A poet from the North-East region of Singapore, Cyril Wong, was crowned champion in the Fiction category for his debut novel, Beachlight. His work evokes the lives of three siblings in an isolated island community and focuses on family and the power of memory.
The NAC Young Artists Awards celebrate the outstanding talents of secondary school students across Asia and are a platform to showcase their creativity, passion and talent. The winners, ranging from photography to film to dance and drama, will receive cash prizes and an opportunity to join international art exchange programs.
A Singaporean professor has won the 2024 Law & Society Association International Prize, which recognizes scholarship that has contributed to the advancement of the study of law and society. Professor Lynette Chua, who teaches law at the NUS Faculty of Law, is the first Asian woman to win the prize since its inception.
The Singapore Literature Prize, which honors writing in the country’s four official languages, has a shorter shortlist this year than last, due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and a shift to online voting for this round of the competition. Its 49 titles in three genres include several notable names, including the directors of this city’s literary festival and Mok Zining’s first book, The Orchid Folios. You can see the entire shortlist — in both the fiction and nonfiction categories — here.