Awards for Best Undergrad Critical Essays on Singapore and Other Literatures

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For the second year running, Singapore Unbound, a NYC-based literary non-profit, will be giving out three awards of USD250.00 each for the best three undergraduate critical essays on topics in Singapore and other literatures. The purpose of these awards is to encourage the teaching and study of Singapore literature at college level and the cultivation of general appreciation for the character and achievements of Singapore literature.

Generously funded again by Professor Koh Tai Ann (NTU, Singapore), three awards will be given to written works of literary criticism that illuminate their chosen topics for the general reader. The award-winning essays will be published on Singapore Unbound’s SP Blog and, possibly, in a professional journal.

For the purpose of these awards, Singapore literature is defined as literature written in English from 1965 onwards by a Singaporean citizen, permanent resident, or anyone with a strong personal and literary association with Singapore. The author does not have to be residing in Singapore nor to have maintained their citizenship. The work(s) discussed may be in any of the literary genres, including but not limited to poetry, fiction, literary non-fiction, drama, and graphic novels. In future iterations of the awards, we hope to include Singapore literature written in other languages besides English.

Essay topics may include studies of a single author or a single work (for example, a novel, volume of poems, or collection of short stories). In the case of a single work, the essay must go well beyond the ambition of a book review to offer mature reflection within an interesting analytical framework. The topics may also be of a comparative nature, that is, the essays may compare an author/work with another author/work, as long as both works are in English. The second author/work may be non-Singaporean, but at least half of the essay must focus on its Singaporean aspect.

We welcome all critical and theoretical perspectives, but we prefer writing that is graceful, compelling, and accessible.

The awards judge is literary scholar Weihsin Gui. Weihsin Gui is Associate Professor of English at the University of California-Riverside. He is the author of National Consciousness and Literary Cosmopolitics: Postcolonial Literature in a Global Moment and has numerous publications about Singaporean literature, such as “Contemporary Literature from Singapore” in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature.

The deadline for submissions is July 31, 2022, and the awards will be announced in September 2022. See guidelines for submission here.

Read this year's winning essays here.

Jee Leong Koh
Nov 11, 2021

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