The Singapore Literature Prize (abbreviation: SLP) is a biennial award in Singapore to recognise outstanding published works by Singaporean authors in any of the four official languages: Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. The competition is organised by the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) with the support of the National Arts Council and the National Library Board.
The Award was briefly discontinued in 1999 and 2002 due to economic problems.[1]
Li Qing Song - Manuscript – Collection of Short Stories
Malay
Merit: Hamed bin Ismail - A Dancing Club: Bunga Tanjong
Commendation: Adam bin Fadilla - Muezzin in Search of Light
Commendation: Farihan Bahron - Avatar's Wrath
Djohan A Rahman - When the Alphabets Dance
Hassan Hassa'Ree Ali - Souvenir From Space
Tamil
Merit: Chitra Ramesh - A Drop of Happiness
Merit: M K Kumar - 5.12 pm
Prema Mahalingam - Water Droplets
Poetryedit
English
Winner: Samuel Lee - A Field Guide to Supermarkets in Singapore
Chinese
Winner: Tan Chee Lay - Landmark Poetics of the Lion City
Malay
Winner: Farihan Bahron - Finger-Pointing Expert
Tamil
Commendation: M Segar - Ravana's Seethai
Commendation: A K Varadharajan - Lee Kwan Yew Imaginary Childhood
Non-fictionedit
English
Winner: Melissa De Silva - "Others" is Not a Race
Chinese
Co-Winner: Liu Su - Roses at the Edge
Co-Winner: Weng Xian-wei - The Second Face
Malay
Commendation: Ahmad Md Tahir - Colour of Expression
Tamil
Winner: Bala Baskaran - G Sarangapany and the Tamil Murasu: A Current Appraisal
2016edit
The 2016 edition received the most submissions ever in its 25-year history: 235 entries, compared to 2014's 182 and 2012's 57, with fiction receiving the most submissions.[4]
Commendation: SP Panneer Selvam - Singapore Tamil Munnodigal[5]
2014edit
For the first time, the award offered 12 top prizes of up to $10,000 each for the best works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. In previous years, fiction competed with poetry for one award in each language.
In July 2014, three judges of the English non-fiction category of the prize resigned in protest against the National Library Board's removal and pulping of controversial children's titles. Mr T. Sasitharan, a prominent arts educator; former journalist Romen Bose; and American author and Writer-in-Residence at Yale-NUS College, Robin Hemley were subsequently replaced.[6] The Prize also received flak for perhaps spreading itself too thin, and for naming the non-fiction prizes after a sponsor, the publisher World Scientific.[7]
A day after the winners were announced at an awards ceremony on 4 November 2014, poet-editor Grace Chia, whose poetry collection Cordelia was shortlisted but did not win in the English Poetry section, delivered a speech in absentia at the Singapore Writers Festival which accused the Prize of sexism. Chia wrote, "The fact that the prize has been given to two co-winners who are both male poets is deeply informing of choice, taste and affirmation. A prize so coveted that it has been apportioned to two male narratives of poetic discourse, instead of one outstanding poet - reeks of an engendered privilege that continues to plague this nation's literary community." Chia also posted her speech on Facebook before subsequently removing it. In response, one of the poetry judges, poet and literary critic Gwee Li Sui, said, "All entries have an equal chance of consideration for winning, and we discussed it based on that point alone, and on the strengths of the collections." The other poetry judges were prominent female poet Leong Liew Geok and poet Boey Kim Cheng.[8]
^Council, Singapore Book. "Singapore Literature Prize 2020 | Singapore Book Council". bookcouncil.sg. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
^Singapore Literature Prize: Creating Our Writers 1922-2018, Singapore Book Council. ISBN 978-981-11-9226-5
^"Record 235 submissions for the Singapore Literature Prize 2016". Singapore Press Holdings. The Straits Times. 29 January 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
^"Singapore Literature Prize: The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye wins English fiction award". Channel NewsAsia. MediaCorp. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
^Akshita, Nanda (27 August 2014). "NLB saga: New judges for Singapore Literature Prize". The Straits Times. Singapore Press Holdings. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
^Nanda, Akshita (7 October 2014). "Singapore Literature Prize not on same page as publishers". The Straits Times. Singapore Press Holdings. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
^Tan, Corrie (6 November 2014). "Gender bias allegations over Singapore Literature Prize English Poetry results". Singapore Press Holdings. The Straits Times. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
^"Stella Kon". Singapore Women's Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
Referencesedit
Singapore Literature Prize - National Book Development Council of Singapore
Singapore Literature Prize: Celebrating Our Writers 1992-2018. Singapore 2018/2019 ISBN 978-981-11-9226-5