The Sgp Prize and Other Literature Prizes in Singapore
sgp prize is the most valuable award given for the best piece of writing in any medium by anyone in Singapore. It’s an honour to win this prize, and a great way to show your readers that you’re a top writer. However, it’s not an easy feat to win this award because there are many other writers who also want to make it to the top of the industry.
Aside from the sgp prize, there are other prizes in the field of literature that you can win as well. The most popular is the Singapore Literary Award, which is given for a work of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry. The award is given by the National Arts Council of Singapore and is supported by a wide range of sponsors. It is a highly competitive award, and winners can expect to earn between S$20,000 and S$40,000.
The prize was named after Professor Emeritus William A. Brown, a distinguished historian of African and Islamic history. He was a pioneer in Black Studies at NUS, and his legacy lives on through this prize.
He also served as a founding member of the Black Studies Programme and the first chair of its Undergraduate Advisory Board. He was an inspiring teacher and a committed advocate of diversity, which is reflected in the spirit of this writing prize.
For the history category, six books were nominated for the Prize. The prize was established in 2014 to recognise the importance of Singapore’s history in global perspective. The winning book will demonstrate how historical events and figures have shaped our modern world, and help Singaporeans develop a greater sense of identity.
The Prize has been awarded twice so far. The inaugural winner was a nonfiction work by Dr Miksic on the Kampong Gelam archaeological site, which won in 2014. In 2021, a new book by Prof Mahbubani on the 14th century port of Singapore received the prize.
In the English literature category, two Epigram Books titles shared the prize: Straits Times journalist Akshita Nanda’s debut novel Nimita’s Place about a couple of Indian women navigating society’s expectations in both India and Singapore; and the speculative short story collection Lion City by Ng Yi-Sheng.
Prof Kishore Mahbubani, the senior advisor (university and global relations) at NUS, said there could be plans to expand the scope of works that can qualify for the prize. “We may move beyond written works to include films, comics, and other forms. That is because, as the American social scientist Benedict Anderson once put it, nations are ‘imagined communities’, and a shared imagination of history is a critical glue holding societies together,” he added. A jury panel will select the winner in Oct. 2024.