The winner of a Group 2 prize worth $12.7 million in the Singapore Pools Toto draw on October 2 is not yet known. The ticket was sold online, at Giant supermarket in Pioneer Mall and FairPrice in Woodleigh Mall, and at the Singapore Pools Chinatown Point branch.
The inaugural 2024 Singapore Literature Prize — the country’s top literary award in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil — will be presented on November 7. The competition offers 12 top prizes of up to $10,000 each for works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry in the four languages.
This year, the award includes a Readers’ Choice category that enables readers to vote for their favorites. In this round of consumer voting, two works of fiction shared the readers’ favorite prize: Akshita Nanda’s debut novel Nimita’s Place, about women navigating expectations in India and Singapore, and Cyril Wong’s short story collection Black Panther, which revolves around the lost housing estate Dakota Crescent where he grew up.
Other winners included Epigram Books titles in the English and Chinese fiction categories. Jeremy Tiang won the English translation prize for his work with Chinese author Zhang Yueran for Cocoon (2022), in which two childhood friends talk through the night to put to bed dark secrets linking their families in the shadow of the Cultural Revolution.
The Singapore International Violin Competition, which celebrates the art of violin playing, has named Dmytro Udovychenko, Anna Agafia Egholm and Angela Sin Ying Chan as its 2022 winners. All three musicians will perform concerts as part of the celebrations in December. The winners received USD $110,000, along with multiple concert engagements, while the runner-up, movement artist Sasa Cabalquinto, won USD $25,000.
Singapore’s National Parks Board has won the 2017 UNESCO Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation in Jordan, the prize’s official website announced. The UNESCO Prize is an annual award given by the organization to recognize “the most outstanding parks worldwide” that have made significant contributions in protecting biodiversity and cultural heritage, and in enhancing human well-being.
The NParks board will receive a grant of up to $2 million over five years. The money will support research, conservation and education initiatives, as well as projects to promote awareness about biodiversity and cultural heritage. In addition, the organization will work with local organizations to connect them with businesses and other partners in the region. UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova said the prize was an important recognition of the value of parks to people and planet. It “showcases the role of Singapore as a regional hub for innovation and partnership in the global conservation community.”