A migrant worker in Singapore has just become S$18,888 richer after winning the prize money at his company’s annual dinner and dance event. Selvam Arumugam, 42, beat 35 of his colleagues at games inspired by Netflix’s popular Squid Game, a series in which people who are living with financial hardship compete in children’s games with deadly stakes. The winner of the prize, a rigger and signalman for heavy lift and transport firm Pollisum Engineering, did not understand what the rules were but he copied what others did in the games to win.

The winners of the inaugural Harvard Prize Book (Singapore) will be announced at an award ceremony at NUS today. The award is designed to inspire Singapore students with the idea that Harvard is an attainable institution of higher learning and to connect them to the Harvard community in Singapore. The competition is open to Singaporean authors of non-fiction or fiction works that address any period, theme or field of Singapore history and are published between January 2017 and November 2020.

The 2022 biennial Singapore Literature Prize made its return this evening at Victoria Theatre with the announcement of 12 winners in the island state’s Chinese, English and Malay languages. Two writers – Suratman Markasan and Wang Gungwu – made history by becoming the oldest winners, while eight of the 12 were first-time recipients. In a break from its previous tradition, this year’s awards also included a Readers’ Favourite category. Four writers – Ali bin Salim, Daryl Qilin Yam, Pan Zheng Lei (Pan Cheng Lui) and rma cureess (Rama Suresh) – won this category along with the traditional awards for their books.

This year’s competition also included a Sustainability Track, where teams were challenged to develop an innovative solution that will help create a more sustainable world while prioritising the needs of individuals. Team Revent from the School of Computer Science and Engineering emerged victorious in this track, securing a second-place finish in the final with their hardware solution that allows customers to receive their receipts on their smartphones with a single tap instead of receiving paper copies from Singapore Pools outlets.

The winner of the Singapore Literature Prize will take home a cash prize of S$3,000 and a trophy. A total of 43 books were submitted for the 2022 biennial award, which covers all genres and is available in English, Chinese and Tamil. The 2022 biennial prize will include a Readers’ Favourite category, in which voters can choose their favourite works from the shortlisted titles. Those that receive the most votes will win a special hand-crafted trophy. Voting is open until 25 August. Find out more here.