Singapore Prize 2024 Shortlist Announced
SINGAPORE — An Indian maker of solar-powered dryers, a soil carbon marketplace and groups that work to make electric car batteries cleaner and restore Andean forests were among the winners at the third annual Earthshot Prize awards ceremony. Britain’s Prince William, whose Royal Foundation charity launched the 10-year award program in 2020, said Tuesday that the solutions presented by all 15 finalists proved that “hope does remain” as climate change wreaks havoc around the world. Celebrities including Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and actors Donnie Yen, Lana Condor and Nomzano Mbatha attended the event, held at Singapore’s Changi Airport, where the 40-metre high Rain Vortex was illuminated green to welcome the prize winners as they arrived.
The organisers of the Singapore prize 2024 have released a shortlist of 71 works for this year’s competition, which rewards writers in a mix of genres from both new and veteran authors. Those nominated in the fiction category include debut novelist Myle Yan Tay for his work Catskull, while Cultural Medallion recipient Suchen Christine Lim is competing with her work Dearest Intimate. There are also five books in the non-fiction category, with the selection ranging from a biography of the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to an account of how a fire at the Bukit Ho Swee settlement in 1961 led to the creation of Singapore.
This year’s Singapore literature prizes also see a return of the Readers’ Favorite exercise, where readers are asked to vote online for their favorite of the shortlisted works. The winner of that competition wins 1,000 Singapore dollars (US$720) in book vouchers.
Besides that, the winning authors in each category will get a monetary prize of S$10,000, as well as a chance to be profiled in The Straits Times and its sister publications. The judging panel will be chaired by Kishore Mahbubani, Distinguished Fellow at the NUS Asia Research Institute. He is a former winner of the award and will be joined by his fellow judges, Prof Peter Colcanis, Claire Chiang and Prof Wang Gungwu.
The award programme is a partnership between the National University of Singapore and the Ministry of Education. Its aim is to uphold the reputation of Singapore as a global hub for innovation and excellence, and to build a community of Singaporean entrepreneurs who are global leaders in their respective fields.
In addition to monetary awards, the Singapore prize has also partnered with local organisations to provide professional development opportunities for its winners and finalists. These are designed to help them expand their networks, develop business strategies and build skills, as well as to encourage the creation of new ventures and innovative ideas.
The prestigious award was created in support of SG50, and will recognise entrepreneurs who have achieved above and beyond in building their businesses in Singapore and South East Asia. The winner will be announced in October this year. For more information on the award, visit the official website. In a press release, the organising committee said that the selection of the winners was based on rigorous criteria and a comprehensive process.