Singapore Literature Prize to be open to non—fiction works from 2014

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Literature Prize will be open to non—fiction literary works from 2014, announced Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong at the 2012 Singapore Literature Prize Awards Ceremony on Friday.

Mr Wong, who is also the Senior Minister of State for Communication and Information, said the initiative will highlight and recognise outstanding non—fiction works produced by Singaporeans and would encourage more writers to step forward with their contributions.

He added that it was timely move, and that it would recognise a greater pool of talent and their works.

Mr Wong also noted that the local literary arts scene has benefited from the collaboration across different artistic media citing, the National Arts Council’s Project LAVA and the Poetry of Song 2012 as examples.

Project LAVA was a moving exhibition that transformed poems into visual displays, while Poetry of Song 2012 event was jointly managed by Timbre Music Academy and the Singapore Writers Festival and married poetry with song writing.

The minister was speaking at the 2012 Singapore Literature Prize Awards Ceremony, which recognises and honours Singaporean fiction books in each of the four languages — English, Mandarin Malay, and Tamil.

A total of seven writers were honoured this year.

The winners of the 2012 Singapore Literature Prize are: Eddie Tay, for his collection of bilingual poems ’The Mental Life of Cities, Yeng Pway Ngon for his Mandarin novel ’Hua Shi’, and Ramanathan Vairavan for his Tamil poetry collection ’Kavithai Kuzhanthaikal’.

The three winners also get a cash prize of S$10,000.

Ahmad Jaaffar Bin Munasip, for his collection of Malay short stories ’Jago Yang Terlupa Dilupakan’, won the Merit Prize.

Three other writers were awarded the Commendation Prize. They are: Peter Augustine Goh Mey Teck for ’Kerana Setitik Madu’, a collection of Malay short stories, Rohman Munasip for Secangkir Ceritera, a collection of Malay short stories, and Yazid Hussein, for his Malay novel ’Kisah Cek Yah’.

— CNA/jc