About Singapore Literature Prize
The winners of Singapore’s top literary award were announced at the first-ever Singapore Literature Prize (SLP) virtual awards ceremony! Watch the video below and discover how it unfolded, with 17 winners sharing 20 awards. There were surprises and history was made with two winners in all the fiction categories in four languages.
The winners include 黄凯德 (Wong Koi Tet) and சித்துராஜ் பொன்ராஜ் (Sithuraj Ponraj), who snapped up two awards each at the ceremony. Marylyn Tan is the first woman to win the English Poetry category. Browse the ceremony booklet below to find out more about the other shortlisted writers.
Visit the Winners section to find out more about the winners, their works, and where you can purchase their books!
The theme of this year’s SLP #WhyWeWrite examines what compels writers to write, and why SLP is more relevant than ever before in these challenging times.
About Singapore Literature Prize
Established in 1992, the Singapore Literature Prize (SLP) is Singapore’s top literary prize, with more than 80 past winners. The prize is a biennial competition open to Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents whose works of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction have been published in Singapore or abroad during a specified period of time. The work can be published in any of Singapore’s four official languages — Chinese, English, Malay, or Tamil.
The award carries a top prize of S$3,000 for the winner in each of the categories. In addition, the winners will be awarded a specially commissioned plaque.
2020 Winners & Shortlists:
Co-Merit Winner Labirin Al Maut (Labryinth of Al Maut) by Noor Aisya Buang
Co-Merit Winner Tunjuk Langit (Pointing the Sky) by Jamal Ismail
Readers’ Favourite Warna Sebuah Rahsia (The Colour of Secret) by Peter Augustine Goh
Objectives:
- To promote Singapore literary talent through due recognition of outstanding published works by Singapore authors across the four official languages: Chinese, English, Malay, or Tamil.
- To stimulate public interest and support for creative writing in Singapore.
Categories:
- This award is open to any work of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction created by a Singapore citizen or permanent resident. The work must be published in a physical book format in Singapore or abroad between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2019.
- Works intended for children and teenagers should be submitted for the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award, not SLP.
- The 12 categories are
Creative nonfiction (Chinese, English, Malay, Tamil)
Fiction (Chinese, English, Malay, Tamil)
Poetry (Chinese, English, Malay, Tamil)
Official Online Bookstore
LocalBooks.sg is a one-stop online bookstore solely dedicated to Singapore books. These are books that are written by Singaporean authors or books published in Singapore, or books written about Singapore. They include novels, memoirs, recipe books, graphic novels, picture books, plays, and poetry books, and are in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. Bestselling and award-winning titles include State of Emergency, A Field Guide to Supermarkets in Singapore, Stranger to Myself and many more.
With thousands of titles from various Singapore publishers, LocalBooks.sg aspires to bring Singapore titles to a wider audience, eliciting awareness and giving everyone a chance to grow with stories from the Lion City. It doesn't get more local than this.