The 2024 Singapore Prize is open to non-fiction and fiction works, either written or translated into English. Works that address any time period, theme or field of Singaporean history will be considered. The Prize will be awarded to a book-length work which is authored or co-authored and published in Singapore between 1 June and 31 May 2024.
NUS Asia Research Institute distinguished fellow Kishore Mahbubani, who mooted the idea for the prize in a Straits Times column, said: “The famous American social scientist Benedict Anderson once argued that nations are ‘imagined communities’ and that a shared imagination is a critical glue holding societies together today. History is a key element in this shared imagination. That is why the NUS Singapore Prize for History has been established.”
The NUS Prize is a biennial literary award given to a book-length work of historical significance that demonstrates scholarly excellence and an engaging writing style. The Prize carries a cash prize of S$25,000 and is presented at a gala ceremony in Singapore. A Public Vote Prize of S$15,000 is also awarded to the book with the highest number of public votes. The book also receives a publishing contract with SingPost.
In the history category, the award went to a memoir by National University of Singapore Professor Emeritus Peter Ellinger for Down Memory Lane: Peter Ellinger’s Memoirs (2023). Ellinger, who is 91, was the oldest winner of the Prize and the first to win for an English work. The judges described his book as a monumental undertaking that seamlessly blends the personal, political and the historical with a beautiful coherence.
A book on the enduring legacy of a Singaporean Malay community by author and translator Jeremy Tiang was also shortlisted for the prize in the Non-fiction category. Leluhur: Singapore’s Kampong Gelam (2021, available here) was lauded for its ability to illuminate the stories of a place that many now know only as a tourist attraction.
In the Literature in English category, the prize went to a humorous tale of a chicken from another dimension stranded on Earth in human form, the self-published Cockman (2022) by Kenfoo. The judges praised the book’s total lack of seriousness and compromise as well as its audaciousness and absurdity. The runner-up was the novel Cocoon (2019) by Chinese author Zhang Yueran, which won praise for its complex characterisation and attention to detail. The prize was presented by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at a gala ceremony in Singapore. The Singapore Book Council’s achievement awards for writers and translators were also presented at the event. The full list of winners can be viewed here.