The Singapore Prize is an award that encourages writing that champions mindsets and values essential to our nation, such as equity, diversity, religious harmony, meritocracy and pragmatism. Established by Alan Chan’s gift to SUSS Foundation and administered by them. Each year an author who best champions these values will be recognized with this prize which comes with an incredible cash pot of $30,000. This makes this Singapore literary award amongst the highest in Asia.
In 2026, the winners of the Singapore Prize will be recognized at an awards ceremony hosted by Temasek Foundation and NUS. At this ceremony they will receive cash prize and medallion as well as attend series of public events hosted by NUS Centre for Singapore Studies.
Runner-ups will receive cash prizes and certificates, while nominees will be presented with plaques. Furthermore, NUS Press will publish the top 10 finalists’ works in an exhibition catalogue to be distributed both at the awards ceremony itself as well as libraries across the nation.
A panel of 42 experts, such as academics and teachers, will select shortlisted works. From each category it will select its winner as well as an overall champion for the Singapore prize. Judges come from local and international communities – this may include educators, historians or award-winning authors/writers.
Singapore Prize winners will be invited to Singapore for a week-long program that honors innovation and impact, featuring world leaders, business partners, investors and experts to explore ways in which to accelerate solutions to environmental problems faster and drive action towards sustainable living.
Kishore Mahbubani, chair of the jury panel for this prize and instrumental in setting it up in 2014, stated at the awards ceremony that in order for Singapore to thrive in the 21st century, its main challenge should not be economic but rather creating a sense of national identity founded in shared history.
The NUS Singapore History Prize is open to any artist, author, playwright or producer who creates an artistic and multimedia historical work delivered in English (works translated into English are eligible). These pieces may cover any field, theme or period in Singapore’s past that provide new insights or provoke curiosity among Singaporeans about our past.
Shelly Bryant splits her time between Shanghai and Singapore as a poet, writer, translator, editor of poetry anthologies for Alban Lake Books and Celestial Books as well as being longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize with her translation of Sheng Keyi’s Northern Girls being longlisted for longlist status in 2012. Furthermore she coedits Ecco anthology of international poetry alongside Ilya Kaminsky.