{"id":20054,"date":"2025-07-25T02:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T02:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/20054\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T02:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T02:40:07","slug":"poet-joshua-ips-ownself-say-ownself-wins-book-of-the-year-at-singapore-book-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/20054\/","title":{"rendered":"Poet Joshua Ip\u2019s Ownself Say Ownself wins Book of the Year at Singapore Book Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 Poet Joshua Ip\u2019s Ownself Say Ownself is the first poetry collection to win Book of the Year at the Singapore Book Awards, in a ceremony held at The Pod at the National Library Building on July 24. The collection of his poems, translations and performance pieces was published by Landmark Books in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Ip told The Straits Times after learning of his win: \u201cPoetry doesn\u2019t make money. Translations don\u2019t sell. Spoken word poems published in book form will never work. I\u2019m glad to see that, despite the prevailing wisdom, \u2018foolish\u2019 publishers like Goh Eck Kheng of Landmark Books still persevere in making the literary a little bit less \u2018airy fairy\u2019 and a bit more \u2018lit\u2019 \u2013 and are occasionally rewarded for it.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The book, which also won the Markono Best Literary Award, bested the winning books in 13 other categories to snag the top prize. The 11th edition of the annual industry awards, organised by the Singapore Book Publishers Association (SBPA), recognises the best of books published in Singapore. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Mr Kenny Chan, former senior director at Books Kinokuniya and one of the judges for Book of the Year, said the judging process was \u201cmuch tougher\u201d. He called Ip\u2019s title a \u201cmonumental book\u201d which tipped over the other contenders for its \u201clength and breadth\u201d, covering original poems, translations, musical excerpts and a crowd-sourced Dante-inspired poem. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">About 150 titles were submitted across the 14 award categories, said the organisers. Judges comprised 18 industry figures including booksellers, librarians, content creators, educators and authors. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/life\/arts\/book-review-late-lawyer-adrian-tan-s-if-i-were-king-of-singapore-a-loose-set-of-linkedin-musings?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">The late lawyer Adrian Tan\u2019s If I Were King Of Singapore<\/p>\n<p><\/a>, a posthumous collection of his online socio-political writings, was given a special mention by the judges for Book of the Year. Tan\u2019s book, published in 2024 by Landmark Books, won in the Best Non-Fiction Title category. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The inaugural winner of the newly created Best Graphic Novel category is Amber &amp; Blue And The Hunt For DNA by Claudia Flandoli, published by World Scientific Publishing in 2024. Landmark Books was the biggest winner of the night with four awards, followed by Epigram Books with three. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The 2025 edition also marked the first time four awards were named after the sponsors, namely the Markono Best Literary Work Award, the KHL Best Custom Publishing Award, the Class Best Textbook Award and the Juliet David Best Food Book Award.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In 2024, playwright and author <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/life\/arts\/myle-yan-tay-wins-best-literary-work-and-book-of-the-year-at-the-singapore-book-awards-2024?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">Myle Yan Tay took home the two top prizes for his debut novel Catskull (2023)<\/p>\n<p><\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Book of the Year and Markono Best Literary Work Award: Ownself Say Ownself by Joshua Ip (Landmark Books)<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Best Graphic Novel: Amber &amp; Blue And The Hunt For DNA by Claudia Flandoli (World Scientific Education)<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Best Non-Fiction Title: If I Were King Of Singapore by Adrian Tan (Landmark Books)<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Best Illustrated Non-Fiction Title: BMT Sketchbook by Asher Ong (Landmark Books)<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Best Professional Title: Behind The Banyan: Ho Kwon Ping On Building A Global Brand by Aaron Low (World Scientific Publishing)<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Juliet David Best Food Book Award: Lala-Land: Singapore\u2019s Seafood Heritage by Anthony D. Medrano (Epigram Books)<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Best Young Person\u2019s Fiction Title: The Travelling Library Chronicles Of Maizey Lee: The Road To Bangkok by Erni Salleh (Epigram Books)<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Best Young Person\u2019s Non-Fiction Title: The Rainforest Adventures Of Biogirl MJ: Exploring Our Tropical Rainforests To Solve A Magical Mystery by Kong Man Jing and Raye Ng (World Scientific Education)<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Best Picture Book: Jemma Dreams Of Sushi by Ruo-Ting Goh and Mark Chen (Epigram Books)<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Class Best Textbook Award: Digital Literacy And Computing Grades 1 To 6 by Mohammad Kamil, Islani Ishak, Charlie Chew, Tay Wan Jing, Chua Teck Chai (Marshall Cavendish Education)<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Best Educational Supplement: Singapore Maths Calendar 2025 (Child Educational Co)<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Best Cover Design: Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe (Ethos Books) <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The KHL Best Custom Publishing Award: Timmy &amp; Bill Meet The Explorers Of Sentosa (Sentosa Development Corporation) <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Best Marketing Campaign: Hue City by Claire Betita de Guzman (Penguin Random House SEA) <\/p>\n<p>Singapore booksAwards and prizesPoetryFictionNon-fiction books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SINGAPORE \u2013 Poet Joshua Ip\u2019s Ownself Say Ownself is the first poetry collection to win Book of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-20054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}