In an evening of firsts, the Singapore prize crowned its first female winner for English poetry and gave out its oldest winner for Chinese fiction. Marylyn Tan’s enigmatic debut collection Gaze Back, inspired by Helene Cixous’ essay The Laugh Of Medusa, tackled taboo topics such as menstruation and sexuality. She became the first woman in the biennial prize’s 28-year history to win the English category.
Across all categories, the number of submissions increased by 30 per cent. 224 entries were received, with an impressive 40 per cent coming from outside Singapore. This year’s judges include Esplanade communications and content head Clarissa Oon for the English creative non-fiction category, Cultural Medallion recipient KTM Iqbal for Tamil poetry and Dr Sa’eda Buang of the Asian Languages and Cultures Academic Group for Malay fiction.
The prize is a unique platform for promoting the work of writers in the languages of Singapore, including English, Mandarin and Tamil. It also recognises the contributions of translation and publishing to literary development. It is an initiative of the Singapore National Arts Council and supported by the National Library Board and Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
In addition to the main categories, there are two new categories this year – Readers’ Favourite and Youth Voices. The former aims to promote writing and reading habits among Singaporeans, while the latter focuses on empowering young voices and giving them a platform to share their thoughts with the wider community. Both of these new categories have proved popular, with a total of 3,000 votes being cast.
At the awards ceremony at state-owned Mediacorp Campus, the heir to the British throne, Prince William, donned an old dark green blazer in keeping with the sustainability theme. He was joined by other presenters such as actor Sterling K. Brown, actor Donnie Yen and actress Mbatha-Michael Coelho. Bands One Republic and Bastille and US singer Bebe Rexha performed at the glitzy event, which was co-hosted by actresses Hannah Waddingham and Sterling K. Brown.
The 2023 winners of the Earthshot Prize – Accion Andina, GRST, WildAid Marine Program and S4S Technologies – were announced at a star-studded event in Singapore on Tuesday (7 November). The Laureates were selected through a rigorous assessment process by an international panel of judges comprising a mix of distinguished local and international experts, educators, entrepreneurs and award-winning literary luminaries. The Prize is not about recognising perfect cities but about identifying and amplifying cities’ efforts to solve the world’s biggest challenges. It also recognises the importance of collaboration and collective impact among the city leaders to achieve this.