The 2023 Prize Winners were announced at a star-studded Awards Ceremony on Tuesday night hosted by Emmy Award winning actress Hannah Waddingham and three-time Emmy winning actor Sterling K. Brown. The event was held at the Mediacorp Campus in Singapore, a hub for cutting edge innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition to the announcement of this year’s Winners, the evening highlighted inspiring stories from the 15 Finalists who were nominated for this year’s Prize.
The NUS Singapore History Prize is an annual literary award administered by the Department of History at the National University of Singapore. It is open to works that deal with the history of Singapore, and are written in English by creators of any nationality. The Prize aims to “cast a wide net for the consideration of works that deal with the past.”
Each year, an anonymous donor supports the award with an endowment. NUS’s Jury Panel will select the winning work from nominations made by a Selection Committee composed of academics in history, writers and literary figures, curators of museums and heritage sites, teachers and curriculum developers, and the general public.
This year, the prize has expanded to include two new categories: People of Good and Trusted Media. The former category focuses on honoring individuals who go above and beyond to help others in their communities, while the latter recognises those who have created platforms that are able to distinguish fake news from authentic information. The People of Good award will be presented by NUS President Prof Tan Tai Yong, and the Trusted Media award will be handed out by NUS’s Centre for Strategic Communication and Policy Research.
This year, the prize received an unprecedented number of applications from across Southeast Asia. In order to make the shortlist, judges looked at a variety of criteria including creativity, impact, and feasibility. The five winners will receive cash prizes of SGD3,000 each, a commissioned trophy and a 12-month subscription to StoryTel. Both the top winners and the runners-up will be featured in a special issue of The NUS Review. In addition, the top five winners will get a chance to pitch their projects at the upcoming Earthshot Week in November. This will be an opportunity for them to accelerate their solutions and bring about positive change for the planet. The prize is supported by Temasek, GenZero and Conservation International.
