DayAugust 28, 2024

The Winners of the Singapore Prize for Literature and the Earthshot Prize for 2020

Hundreds of golf fans are expected to flock to LIV Golf Singapore this year, when the country’s premier golf tournament kicks off on November 6. The event will feature top-tier players from all over the world competing for the USD 4 million prize pool. The winner will walk away with USD 1.5 million, while the runners-up will take home USD 500,000 each. The organizers of the event are also planning to stage a concert headlined by multi-platinum chart-topping singer-songwriter Lauv.

The winners of the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize were announced tonight at a ceremony at the Victoria Theatre, with 43 writers across Chinese, Malay, and Tamil earning a spot in the list of 12 winners. The top prize carries a purse of 3,000 Singapore dollars (US$2,158) and a commissioned trophy, and this year, more than half the winners were shortlisted for their first time.

Two elders have made their mark this evening as the oldest winners of the competition: Suratman Markesan, 91, in Malay for Honing the Pen, Volume 2 and Wang Gungwu, 91, in English for Home Is Where We Are Going. Both are the oldest winners of any Singapore literary competition. Other notable winners include RMa cureess in Tamil fiction for Rma Suresh and the author of Readers’ Favorite in Chinese, Ying Jie, as well as Singaporean literary critic and scholar Tan Leong in the nonfiction category for The Last Literary Scene.

Britain’s Prince William rolled out the green carpet at a ceremony in Singapore to unveil five winners of the Earthshot Prize — a new award program his Royal Foundation charity launched in 2020 that celebrates innovative solutions to global warming and its devastating effects. William, who joined celebrity presenters including Cate Blanchett, Lana Condor, Donnie Yen and Australian wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin on the green carpet, said the solutions highlighted by the 15 finalists showed that “hope does remain” as climate change impacts the planet.

The prize winners are selected by a panel of judges including industry experts and academics, with emphasis placed on research, presentation skills and original thought. The judging process is carried out by the Singapore Academy of Arts, with assistance from international jurors. In addition to the main prizes, there are two supplementary awards: a People’s Choice award for a shortlisted book in each language and the Christopher Bathurst KC Prize for exemplary case studies of corporate governance and the law in Southeast Asia. The latter is named in honour of the late Sir Christopher Bathurst KC, who was a member of Fountain Court Chambers and developed a substantial practice in Singapore before becoming an elected hereditary peer. He was also an eminent advocate in his own right. His cases include the leading decision in Caparo v Dickman 2 AC 605. This prize is funded by the Government of Singapore and the Singapore Institute of Directors. The other supplementary prize is the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize, which recognizes outstanding contributions to solving the world’s water problems.