Singapore Prize 2024

The Singapore Prize honors Singapore’s generous spirit through its inaugural awards ceremony held at Raffles Hotel Singapore on 10 November. Thirteen winners in its People of Good (Open), Leaders of Good (Adult) and Organisations of Good (SME) categories were recognized, sharing incredible stories of resilience and social transformation. President Tharman Shanmugaratnam was in attendance as Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong was appointed Minister, while Kishore Mahbubani served as Jury Chairman Distinguished Jury Chairman Kishore Mahbubani oversaw jury duty.

John N Miksic of NUS Press with the National Museum of Singapore won this year’s award with his book Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea: 1300-1800 published by NUS Press with National Museum. Additionally, they received a financial grant of S$50,000 to publish or use for educational purposes their work.

This year’s competition witnessed an unprecedented number of entries written in multiple languages, with Chinese taking the top spot followed by English and Malay languages. Additionally, five authors were shortlisted in multiple categories-including Clara Chow who became the first person ever shortlisted in both English fiction and Chinese creative nonfiction categories within one competition year!

As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the world, an increased emphasis was seen in entries that highlighted resilience and community. This year’s theme, Resonance: A Celebration of Our Narratives, sought to reflect this importance by acknowledging personal narratives as tools in helping navigate an uncertain period. Our prize’s Judging Panel consisted of prominent academics and historians as well as esteemed members of society.

This year the Prize introduced a Consumer Choice Category that allows members of the general public to vote for their favourite work among those shortlisted in each of its categories. Over 4,000 people cast votes this round of the Consumer Choice Category voting period – almost twice as many than last year! – with four winners of this voting round: Ali bin Salim, Daryl Qilin Yam, Pan Zheng Lei (Pan Cheng Lui), and rmaa cureess being declared.

As part of Singapore Art Week 2024’s Resonance: A Celebration of Our Narratives theme, this prize honored the power of storytelling to foster social change and resilience. Winners of this year’s Students Prize (back after five years away), which returned physically after an absence of five years, could showcase their artwork at ART SG exhibition and gain valuable exposure at Singapore Art Week; additionally they received financial grants that supported their artistic journeys – click here to discover more about them.