The 2020 Singapore Book Awards were announced in a digital presentation
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Schoppert: ‘To Ensure Books Have the Impact Intended’
The Singapore Book Publishers Association’s Singapore Book Awards, as you’ll remember, this year have been expanded to include 10 categories, the newly added three of which reflect the progress that digital publishing is making in the island city-state’s literary community.
- Book Cover Design
- Education Title
- Illustrated Non-Fiction Title
- Literary Work
- Middle Grade / Young Adult Title
- Nonfiction Title
- Picture Book
- Audiobook Title
- Digital Marketing Campaign
- Ebook Title
And an overall Book of the Year category, drawn from the others, has made a book about desserts the top title of the year.
Christopher Tan’s The Way of Kueh, Savouring and Saving Singapore’s Heritage Desserts is published by Edmund Wee’s Epigram Books by Christopher Tan (Epigram Books) is both the winner in the Illustrated Nonfiction class and the Book of the Year, the jury writing in its rationale, “Its impact, relevance and importance is in its contribution to the heritage and knowledge it brings to the community as well as to the culinary world.
“This book about the heritage desserts called kueh and found in Singapore and the region is beautifully written, produced, and extensively researched. It’s truly accessible to neophytes as well as culinary experts.
“The bonus of course, is that this book is a cookbook, as well.”
Overnight, the Singapore Book Awards were announced in a digital presentation, with the association president, Peter Schoppert, saying, “The Singapore Book Awards recognize excellence in publishing.
“They don’t only consider the quality of the writing or artwork they contain. They also take into account the way the different elements have been brought together by the publisher, in book design, in production quality, in editing, and in the efforts publishers and authors make together to bring books to market, to gather the audience for every book and to ensure books have the impact intended.”
Singapore Book Award Winners 2020
Singapore Book Publishers Council president Peter Schoppert speaks in the 2020 Singapore Book Awards presentation. Image: SBPA
Audiobook
Penghuni Rumah Tua, narrated by Erul Samah (Pustaka Nasional)
Digital Marketing Campaign
Storytel Singapore’s digital marketing campaign
Ebook
think! Additional Mathematics e-Textbooks A and B (10th edition), by Dr Joseph B.W. Yeo, Dr Choy Ban Heng, Teh Keng Seng, Wong Lai Fong and Sharon Lee (Shing Lee Publishers)
Book Cover Design
The Angel Tiger and Other Stories, designed by Liak Yuan Ying (Epigram Books)
Education
How to Build a Dragon or Die Trying: A Satirical Look at Cutting-Edge Science, by Paul Knoepfler and Julie Knoepfler (World Scientific Publishing)
Illustrated Nonfiction
The Way of Kueh, Savouring and Saving Singapore’s Heritage Desserts, by Christopher Tan (Epigram Books)
Literary
Fall Baby, by Laksmi Pamuntjak (Penguin Random House Southeast Asia)
Middle Grade / Young Adult
Luminous Sword – Book 3, Keys of Archellos, by Eunice Li-Tan (Armour Publishing)
Nonfiction
Homeless: The Untold Story of a Mother’s Struggle in Crazy Rich Singapore, by Liyana Dhamirah (Epigram Books)
Picture Book
Counting Sheep, by Pippa Chorley (author) and Danny Deeptown (illustrator) (Marshall Cavendish International (Asia))
In addition to those category awards, the program commended two titles with honorary mentions, one being Loss Adjustment, a book on the culturally challenging subject of suicide from Ethos Books. The other went to Pustaka Nasional as a special mention for using technology in creating bilingual resources with the support of the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism “to demonstrate the advantages of the EPUB format to make the bilingual book work in ways that a printed book cannot.”
During the course of the online presentation, commentary comes from Sim Ann, senior minister for communications, information, and national development, and from Chonrungsee Chalermchaikit, president of the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand, currently holding the presidency of the ASEAN Book Publishers Association.
The digital presentation program for the awards can be seen on Facebook here.
Chonrungsee Chalermchaikit, president of the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand, currently holding the presidency of the ASEAN Book Publishers Association., speaks during the 2020 Singapore Book Awards program. Image: SBPA
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