An Indian-origin lecturer at Nanyang Technological University has won the Singapore Literature Prize for English fiction for her short story – ‘Nine Yard Sarees’. Prasanthi Ram, 32, debut work was published in late 2023. The short story cycle is about generations of a Tamil Brahmin family dispersed across Singapore, Sydney, New York and Connecticut.
Prasanthi said of her book, “I am completely in shock. I’m so humbled that the judges saw merit in ‘Nine Yard Sarees’, especially since I wrote this manuscript while caregiving for my late father. “I hope that more writers experiment with the short story cycle form because it was such a joy being able to dive into so many perspectives and contexts in a single work,” The Straits Times quoted Prasanthi as saying.
At a ceremony at the Victoria Theatre on Tuesday, a three-member panel led by poet Cyril Wong said her writing was “skilful, assured, comedic at times, and profoundly moving”. It also described Prasanthi as “a clear-sighted and ruthlessly principled observer”, her collection showing “with remorseless precision the damage women inflict on each other and on the men in their families”.
The prize for best English creative non-fiction went to Indian-origin artist Shubigi Rao, whose ‘Pulp III: An Intimate Inventory Of The Banished Book’ (2022) was the third instalment of her decade-long project on banished books.