The Singapore Prize is a biennial award that recognises publications that make a profound impact on our understanding of Singapore’s history. It is open to books in English, Chinese, Malay or Tamil that cover a particular time period, theme or field of study on Singapore’s past. It is also given to creative works that have clear historical themes. The winning book will receive S$50,000 and the citation will be read at a ceremony in 2024.
A healthy civil society depends on people who are committed to their communities and who, at pivotal times, put the common good before their own interests. That’s why it is so important to reward athletes who make the world a better place by winning medals at the Olympics, Asian, Commonwealth and SEA Games.
For this reason, the Singapore Government is setting up a new scheme to reward medalists and help them fund their training. The medal winners’ cash prize will be based on the number of medals they win, so that those who have a greater impact will earn more money.
In 1969, Singapore Pools launched the Big Sweep lottery game to raise money for our first National Stadium. They sold tickets costing $1 each and raised more than $15 million from the public over a few years. The money helped build the stadium and made Singapore an international sports powerhouse.
This year, the annual Singapore Literature Prize awarded 12 top prizes in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil, the island’s four official languages. It is the first time the competition has offered a total of 12 top prizes, up from previous years when fiction competed with poetry for one award in each language.
The winner of this year’s Singapore Prize for English Poetry was poet-editor Grace Chia, whose book Cordelia received a unanimous vote from the prize jury. The prize was shared with fellow shortlisted poet Timothy O’Leary for their poems, both of which explore the idea of what it means to be a son of immigrants. Chia gave a speech in absentia at the awards ceremony that accused the prize of sexism, saying that “the fact that two male narratives of poetic discourse were deemed to be outstanding reeks of engendered privilege that continues to plague this nation’s literary community.”
A global environmental prize founded by Britain’s Prince William is set to announce its winners on Nov 7 in Singapore. The Earthshot Prize aims to support innovative solutions that address the biggest challenges facing the planet.
The winners will be honoured at a ceremony in November that features performances by globally renowned artists. The inaugural winners are from a range of sectors and will use their prizes to take their projects to the next level. They will be supported by a network of advisers to help them scale their efforts and make an even bigger impact on the planet. The other finalists were a social media startup for farmers, an artificial intelligence company that can diagnose diseases, and a platform to help women start and grow businesses.