The 2022 biennial Singapore Literature Prize awarded its winners for 12 top prizes in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil tonight (25 August). The program is the largest of its kind in the world, with finalists competing in fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry in all four languages. In this round, more than 4,000 readers voted in the consumer choice category, which had two shortlisted works of fiction and two of creative nonfiction.
Despite the lingering coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore is thriving as a global publishing hub, with a diverse range of literary voices and an ever-increasing audience for books. Those in the book business are bracing for tougher competition in the future, as digital reading has gained in popularity, and readers’ attention spans are shrinking. The industry, however, has seen a number of bright spots in the recent years, including the growth of independent bookstores and the proliferation of publishing houses that are producing local authors.
Khir Johari’s The Food of Singapore Malays: Gastronomic Travels Through the Archipelago won this year’s triennial NUS Singapore History Prize, beating five other long-listed titles in a fiercely fought contest. The hefty tome, which took 14 years from conception to publication and weighs an impressive 3.2 kilograms, bagged a cash prize of $50,000, the highest sum paid out by any Singapore book award.
Johari’s work is notable for its exploration of how the city-state’s many ethnic groups interact with and shape one another. It also delves into the significance of historical sites such as Gedung Kuning, where he was born and raised, and Kampong Gelam, where he now lives. The prize, which was mooted by NUS Asia Research Institute distinguished fellow Kishore Mahbubani in 2014 in support of SG50, aims to “stimulate engagement with Singapore’s history broadly understood and to make the nuances of its history more accessible” to Singaporeans.
The shortlist of six entries for the prize also included academic work with a personal slant, such as Tiang Tian’s book Sembawang: Life in an Estate across Five Decades, which documents life in a single housing estate over a 50-year period. Similarly, Leluhur: Singapore’s Kampong Gelam (2019, available here) by Hidayah Amin shines a light on the history of a neighbourhood that many people know only as a tourist attraction.
The awards ceremony was held at the Victoria Theatre and hosted by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who presented the Singapore Book Council achievement award to late Malay author Suratman Markasan, whose family accepted on his behalf. The awards were handed out by the prize’s three judges, who praised all the shortlisted works for their “extraordinary depth of research and remarkable insight”. The winners will receive their cheques at an upcoming ceremony in November. All of this year’s nominees will have their works published in 2025. Follow the conversation on Twitter and Telegram using #singaporeprize2024. Follow the Straits Times on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Subscribe to the Straits Times’ daily newsletter to get the latest news in your inbox.
