For the first time, a prize dedicated to Singapore’s history will be awarded this year. The NUS Singapore History Prize was launched in 2014 after an anonymous donor offered a substantial endowment to fund it. It is administered by the Department of History at NUS. The winner will receive an award of $50,000 Singapore. Shortlisted books will be publicly announced and featured on the program website. Voters can also choose their favorite books in a consumer choice category, and win book-purchase vouchers worth up to 1,000 Singapore dollars (US$719).
This year’s prize ceremony took place on September 30, 2023 at the Ritz Carlton-Millenia. The event brought together influential individuals from different niche sectors and highlighted how they have raised the bar for their industries. It also honoured the steadfast contribution of patrons, who have shown great commitment in supporting young talents to excel in their craft.
A healthy civil society depends on people who put the common good before their own interests, especially during pivotal moments. These people are often known as “civil servants”, and the Harvard Prize Book (Singapore) recognises their efforts by honouring a book that highlights an act of civil service, or a specific case in which a person put the greater good above his or her own personal gain.
The prize will be presented to the author by Prof Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS. The book was selected after a global search, with more than a thousand nominations from across the world. It was a long and difficult task, but the committee decided that the work was “the most eloquent and moving piece of literature on civil servants and their contributions to society”.
In NUS’s inaugural History Prize in 2018, archaeologist John Miksic won the prize for his book Singapore And The Silk Road Of The Sea, 1300-1800 – which synthesised 25 years of archaeological research to reconstruct the 14th-century port. The prize was established in 2014 when an anonymous donor gave a significant endowment to fund the NUS Singapore History Prize, which will be awarded every three years.
The NUS Singapore History Prize is open to any work of non-fiction written in English, or translated into English, by authors from any nationality. In addition, works of fiction or creative nonfiction are eligible for the NUS Singapore History Prize, as well as any work of historical significance by a debut writer.
Among the NUS Singapore History Prize winners in previous years were Leluhur: A History of Kampong Gelam by Hidayah Amin, and Imperial Creatures: The Human Animal In Colonial Singapore by Timothy P. Barnard, which was a finalist for the British History Book Prize in 2024.
The National Arts Council has honoured more than 400 patrons of the arts in this year’s Patron of the Arts Awards 2023. The honouring of patrons is an annual tradition to commemorate the strong belief and steadfast support of Singaporeans in the arts. The National Arts Council (NAC) celebrated the patrons for their collective contribution of over $45 million in 2022 to advance Singapore’s arts ecosystem.