The Scholastic Asian Book Award is presented annually to recognise Asians and writers of Asian origin who are taking the experiences of life, spirit and thinking in different parts of Asia to the rest of the continent and to the world at large. The award would also promote the understanding of the Asian experience and its expression in innovative and creative forms. The objectives of the award are to recognise excellence in fiction with Asian stories for children, to showcase the diversity of literary talent within Asia, and to encourage and inspire more Asian books.
The Scholastic Asian Book Award will be awarded to an unpublished manuscript in English (either an original work of fiction or a translation from any work of fiction written in any Asian language) targeted at children of ages six to 12 years written by writers in Asia or of Asian origin. The authors may have been previously published.
The best manuscript will also win a prize of S$10,000. The manuscript will also be considered by Scholastic Asia for publication. A total of 144 manuscripts were submitted, of which 10 entries are from the U.S., 33 entries from India, 22 from Philippines, 19 entries from Malaysia, six from Hong Kong, 48 from Singapore, three entries from Vietnam and one each from South Korea, Myanmar and Germany.
The inaugural Scholastic Asian Book Award will be awarded on May 27 at the Asian Festival of Children's Content in Singapore.
About the NBDCS:
National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) is a non-profit umbrella body inaugurated in 1969 to promote literary arts and publishing through a variety of interesting and innovative programmes. Its current objective is to establish and develop Singapore as the Asian centre for publishing and the literary arts.
