The singapore prize, founded in 1992 and now celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, celebrates outstanding Singapore-based literature. This biennial award honours works in any of the nation’s four official languages: Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil.

This year, the focus is on “resonance”, with a nod to how readings can trigger emotions and memories, organizers say. The winner will be announced in Oct. 2021. The shortlist includes academic work such as Seven Hundred Years: A History Of Singapore (2019, available here) and novels with a personal slant. One book, Kamaladevi Aravindan’s Sembawang (2020, available here), follows the lives of an estate’s residents across five decades. “History is not just about big movers and shakers, it’s also about what it means to average people,” the author says.

Among the shortlisted works in the poetry category, Gao Yue’s Gaze Back (Singapore: Seagull Books, 2023) is a clarion call for gender and linguistic reclamation. Its judges say it is “searing in its sassy confidence and universal appetite.”

Singapore’s literary talents were also celebrated at this year’s awards ceremony, which was held in a Singapore theatre and live-streamed on social media. It was hosted by Emmy award winner Hannah Waddingham and featured performances by Bastille, OneRepublic and Bebe Rexha. Other celebrities such as Cate Blanchett, Lana Condor, Robert Irwin and Nomzamo Mbatha attended the event to celebrate with the finalists.

The ceremony was held in conjunction with the Earthshot Prize awards, which honours entrepreneurs for innovations such as solar-powered dryers that tackle food waste and a smartphone app to monitor air pollution levels. Celebrities including actor and philanthropist Simon Cowell, singer-songwriters Lana Del Rey and Cat Power, filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, and actresses Nomzamo Mbatha, Lana Condor and Donnie Yen joined Britain’s Prince William to walk the green carpet at the event.

The Singapore Business Review National Enterprise Awards are famed for recognising exceptional homegrown companies in a range of industry categories, from Education and Financial Services to Food & Beverage and General Insurance. To be considered, a company must have an excellent project or initiative with measurable impact and have innovative internal practices and strategies.