The singapore prize is a triennial award to recognise publications that make a profound impact on Singapore’s history. It is open to all works of literary merit published in the English, Chinese, and Malay languages. In its fourth year, the Department of History has expanded its criteria to encourage submissions from a wider range of authors and topics.

The award is presented to the best book of non-fiction, fiction or poetry that explores Singapore’s heritage. A panel of judges chooses the winner from among the nominated works, looking for a publication that “resonates with Singaporeans.”

This year’s shortlist was diverse and included four historical non-fiction titles by Kamaladevi Aravindan, including Sembawang, which examines the history of an estate in Singapore, and The Merdeka Song, which looks at the politics of detention in the country. The other books are On The Ground: The History of a Singaporean Estate, A History of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, and the Bukit Ho Swee fire.

The winner of the Singapore Literature Prize received a cash prize of $3,00 as well as a trophy and a gift code to audiobook platform Storytel. It is a first time win for the author, who has previously published work in the magazine Esquire and the journal Magma Poetry.

The finalists of the Singapore Prize were chosen from a shortlist of ten books by a jury of literary experts from various disciplines. The prize was founded by philanthropists and is one of the largest in the region. It is aimed at propelling the winners to further their innovations and ideas, and implement them at a greater scale. The awards ceremony also features performances by globally renowned artists and musicians.

This year, the prize also recognised organisations that are leading in the field of green growth, with a new category named Greenest City in Asia Pacific. It was won by Singapore, which was praised for its innovative projects, investments in renewable energy, and the commitment of its people and businesses to sustainability.

Neo4j, an open source graph data platform that helps companies unlock the value of their big data, was named the Most Innovative Graph Data Platform 2022, and is the only company from Singapore to have won this category so far. The winners were selected by a panel of judges from around the world, with representatives from Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Facebook making up the group.

The winners were announced during a special event hosted by Singapore’s current mayor Lee Hsien Loong at the National Museum of Singapore. In addition to the main prize, five other winners were recognised for their outstanding contributions in categories such as the environment, science and technology, social innovation, and entrepreneurship. All finalists will receive GBP 1 million (SGD 1.7 million) in investment capital to accelerate their plans, with a potential for additional funding from the APAC Insider Singapore Business Awards ecosystem. For more details, visit APAC Insider’s website.