Joining the exalted ranks of past winners such as O Thiam Chin, Nuraliah Norasid and Yeoh Jo-Ann, are the just-announced joint winners of the 2021 Epigram Books Fiction Prize, the ceremony for which took place on the evening of January 16 and for the first time virtually (with a dinner set meal delivery service by Conrad Centennial) because of circuit breaker restrictions: Boey Meihan (Singapore) for The Formidable Miss Cassidy and Sebastian Sim (Singapore) for And The Award Goes to Sally Bong, each winner taking home $15,000 in cash prize and whose books will be published by Epigram Books in the second half of 2021.
Boey Meihan is the author of the sci-fi romp The Messiah Virus (Math Paper Press, 2019) and also the Vice-President of The Association of Comic Artists in Singapore. The Formidable Miss Cassidy is about a ladies' companion who arrived in Singapore in the late 19th century to a household infested with pontianak and momoks and other supernaturals. Sebastian Sim is no stranger to the Epigram Books Fiction Prize, having won it in 2017 for The Riot Act and shortlisted in the inaugural rendition of the Prize with Let's Give It Up For Gimme Lao. His winning novel And The Award Goes To Sally Bong is about a non-achiever born two years after Singapore Independence, a counterpart to the super-achiever Gimme Lao. Sim has previously published wuxia novels in Chinese, and has worked a variety of interesting jobs, from being a prison officer to being a croupier in a casino.