The winners of this year’s Singapore prize have been revealed at a program held at the National Trades Union Congress Centre. The biennial awards honour the best published works of fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. There are 12 top prizes of up to $10,000 each.
The jury members are Ade Darmawan, artist and member of the ruangrupa collective; Eugene Tan, director of Singapore Art Museum (SAM) and the National Gallery of Singapore; Gong Yan, director of Power Station of Art; Valentine Willie, co-director of ILHAM gallery; and Akiko Miki, international artistic director of Benesse Art Site Naoshima, Japan, where Heng will have the opportunity to stage a future exhibition. The prize is backed by the Japanese company Benesse.
Former diplomat Kishore Mahbubani, chairman of the five-member prize jury, said: “This is a very important and timely award for our times. It recognises the importance of developing a strong sense of shared history as a key pillar to building a vibrant and resilient Singapore.
In his speech, he added: “The biggest challenge facing our small island state in the 21st century is not so much economic, but in developing a shared identity through a deep and broad understanding of our common heritage. The NUS Singapore History Prize is a significant initiative to address this.”
The competition received 26 submissions, which led the jury to issue two special commendations without cash awards. The judges cited the high quality of work for their decision: Reviving Qixi: Histories Of Humans And Other Animals In The Garden City by Lynn Wong and Lee Kok Leong came in first place; Theatres Of Memory: Industrial Heritage Of 20th Century Singapore by Alex Tan, Loh Kah Seng, Lynne Wilson and Juria Toramae was second.
The NUS Prize will also collaborate with Conservation International (CI), which will help select the prize winner and connect the winner to its network of partners committed to scalable, innovative solutions for nature. CI’s expertise in biodiversity and vast regional networks will add to the prestige of the prize.