Prince William presided over an extravagant ceremony to formally award the inaugural Singapore Prize winners, rolling out a green carpet to unveil them. For English non-fiction (biographies and histories), Kishore Mahbubani won with Living the Asian Century: An Undiplomatic Memoir while Wang Lian took first place for Chinese non-fiction with Into the Thorns of the Dragon: The Life and Legacy of Yunnan’s Last King by taking home both categories respectively.

For both categories, the runners-up books were those which provided fresh insight into Singapore’s past. Judges in English non-fiction commended Reviving Qixi: Singapore’s Forgotten Seven Sisters Festival by Lynn Wong and Lee Kok Leong while finding Theatres of Memory: Industrial Heritage of 20th Century Singapore by Loh Kah Seng, Alex Tan Tiong Hee, Koh Keng We, Tan Teng Phee and Juria Toramae “compelling and riveting”.

This year’s competition also introduced its inaugural English comic or graphic novel category and awarded Cockman (2022) by Kenfoo as its winner for its “total lack of seriousness and compromise, over-the-top audacity”.

Khir Johari’s The Food of the Singapore Malays: Gastronomic Travels Through The Archipelago is this year’s winner of the NUS Singapore History Prize, launched to commemorate Singapore’s 50th birthday celebrations and offering a cash award of $50,000 – making this prize one of Singapore’s premier literary prizes.

Kishore Mahbubani’s Singapore Prize aims to increase engagement with Singapore history broadly interpreted (this can include pre-1819 works) while making it more accessible for non-academic audiences. As one of Singapore’s few prizes that awards both non-fiction and fiction books.

The prize stands out among Asian literary awards due to its impressive prize money and endowment fund, making it one of Asia’s premier literary prizes. Beyond monetary awards, winners also receive mentorship support and professional development opportunities through this prize.

At an elaborate ceremony held at Theatre Mediacorp in Singapore, the 2019 Singapore Prize finalists were unveiled with Prince William wearing a smart green suit and dickie bow to match the color theme of the event. Hannah Waddingham served as Emcee for this evening and donned an elaborate black sparkling ball gown which perfectly complimented the carpet color scheme.

In the non-fiction category, three finalists were shortlisted: biography, social history and memoir; cultural and intellectual history. The judges commended their authors’ “fearless commitment and research towards their subjects”, making their books accessible to a wider audience.

NUS Press presented Singaporean author Cyril Wong with a special achievement award after his book Beachlight made the shortlist in three out of four categories, winning in Chinese poetry category too with Zhang Yueran’s Cocoon winning the award in this event which also welcomed Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and featured performances by three finalists including singer/songwriter Clara Chow at its ceremony.