A sidney prize is an award given out to those who make a positive difference in the world. There are a variety of these prizes available, each with its own advantages and requirements. Some are based on academic achievement, while others focus on social activism. Whatever the case may be, these awards are meant to help those who want to be recognized for their work.

A number of notable sidney prizes exist, including the Sydney Peace Prize, which recognises leading global voices that promote peace and nonviolence. Past laureates have included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson and Joseph Stiglitz. The prize is supported by the city of Sydney and aims to “spark a conversation around ideas for a more just world”.

Other sidney prizes are based on academic achievements. The Iwanter Prize, for example, is given out to a student who has shown outstanding scholarship in the humanities. This award was established through a gift from alumnus Sidney E. Iwanter, who helped document the lectures of history professor Harvey Goldberg at UW-Madison by secretly recording them. The winner of this prize receives a $2,000 unrestricted award.

Another prestigious prize is the National Association of Scholars’ Sidney Hook Memorial Award. This award is presented to a Phi Beta Kappa member who has earned national distinction in three endeavors: scholarship, undergraduate teaching, and leadership in the cause of liberal arts education. This award is announced at the organization’s national conference each year.

In the field of art, there are a number of significant sidney prizes available. These include the Event Cinemas Rising Talent Award, which is given out to an emerging creative working in short film. The 2023 winner of this award was Nazanin Boniadi, whose story The Dancing Girl and the Balloon Man focuses on an Iranian family who find themselves living with ghosts in their new home. The winning entry was published in Overland’s autumn 2024 edition, with the runners-up stories appearing online.

There are also a number of notable prizes in the area of literature. One of these is the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize, which was established in 2023 to celebrate the late Australian writer and journalist Neilma Gantner. The competition is open to writers from Australia and New Zealand, who must submit a piece of fiction that has been inspired by the natural environment. The winner of this prize will receive $5000 in prize money, while the two runners-up will each receive $2750.

In addition to these major prizes, there are many other sidney prizes that are awarded for specific achievements in different fields. For example, the Sydney chess tournament gives out a number of prizes to its top competitors each year. Some of these prizes are monetary, while others are in the form of trophies. There are even sidney prizes for students who excel in their studies, such as the Sidney Cox Prize. This award was founded in commemoration of Dartmouth professor Sidney Cox, and is intended to motivate graduate students towards realizing their dreams.

Despite the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore’s prestigious literary awards went ahead as planned on Saturday. This year’s shortlist featured a record number of writers — notably Clara Chow, who became the first writer in the award’s 30 years to make it onto the list in multiple categories and languages, including Chinese poetry and English creative nonfiction. She will receive a top prize of 3,000 Singapore dollars (US$2,160) and a commissioned trophy, as well as the award certificate, a gold medallion, and a cash prize.

The award ceremony, which took place at the state-owned MediaCorp theater in downtown Singapore, was a glamorous affair, with actors Hannah Waddingham and Sterling K. Brown and pop bands One Republic and Bastille providing entertainment. Prince William, who acted as master of ceremonies, wore an old dark green suit by Alexander McQueen and other presenters walked a “green carpet.” Actresses Yen and Mbatha were dressed in eco-friendly gowns from the label McCartney. The event celebrated the winners of this year’s Earthshot Prize, a PS1 million award for environmental innovators.

This year, NUS Press had six works in the running for the prize, which was launched in 2014 as part of a series of programs commemorating Singapore’s SG50 celebrations. Administered by NUS’s Department of History, the prize is meant to spur interest in the country’s history and culture among non-academic readers.

A jury of four, led by chairman of NUS’ East Asian Institute Wang Gungwu, selected Vincent Tong’s biography of Sam Hua, Singapore’s most dangerous gangster, for the top prize. The book is also a finalist for the British Society for the History of Science’s Hughes Prize. NUS East Asian Institute distinguished fellow Kishore Mahbubani, who mooted the prize, lauded the prize for choosing a work that is rooted in historical research.

“The prize recognizes that nations are imagined communities, and a shared imagination is the glue that holds societies together,” he said in a statement. “This prize affirms the importance of preserving and disseminating knowledge about our common past.”

NUS Press will publish this year’s winning works in English, Mandarin, and Tamil. A full list of the winners can be found on the prize program’s website. NUS Press also announced this year’s winners of the Singapore History Prize, a separate competition that drew 43 submissions. This is the inaugural edition of a prize aimed at spurring interest in Singapore’s history and making it more accessible to a wider audience. More on that can be read here. For more publishing and awards news from Asia, keep an eye on the Singapore page on Publishing Perspectives. To see more articles on Asian publishers and the book business, click here. This is the 131st article we have published since our launch on January 3. To subscribe to our weekly newsletter, click here. Featured image via Wikipedia.