The winners of the 2023 Earthshot Prize were announced at a star-studded ceremony in Singapore on Tuesday evening. Prince William walked the green carpet alongside Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, actors Donnie Yen and Lana Condor, animal conservationist Robert Irwin and local celebrities like singer-songwriters Joker and Hannah Waddingham. He wore a sharp dark green suit from Alexander McQueen that coordinated with Waddingham’s stunning black sparkling dress.
The prize, which comes with a $50,000 award, was created to encourage an engagement with Singapore’s history. It was mooted by NUS Asia Research Institute distinguished fellow Kishore Mahbubani, who serves as the prize’s jury’s chair. “The famous American social scientist Benedict Anderson said that nations are ‘imagined communities’ and a shared imagination, especially in the form of history, is a critical glue holding societies together,” Mahbubani wrote in his Straits Times column when it was first launched in 2014.
Prasanthi’s work explores a range of perspectives and contexts in her short stories – spanning time periods from the present to the pre-Independence era. The judges praised her writing as skilful and assured, wryly humorous and profoundly moving. They also commended her for showing with “ruthless precision” the damage women inflict on each other and on men in their lives.
For the first time in the history of the prize, the award was open to writers from all four official languages: Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. The judges commended the shortlist for capturing “the ebb and flow of life in the city-state through its characters, both familiar and new.” They particularly liked how they had reflected the way Singaporeans see themselves.
A panel of judges from the National Book Development Council of Singapore selected the six books that made the shortlist from a total of 88 submissions. The judges were impressed by the diversity of subject matter, as well as the level of research and writing quality. They were also happy with the way that the authors had managed to communicate complex scientific concepts in an accessible manner.
The winning books will be announced at a gala event in October this year. The prize is supported by a wide range of sponsors, including Temasek Trust, GenZero and the Temasek Foundation. It is a great honour for the winning authors to be part of this prestigious global event, and we look forward to seeing many more submissions in future!