Mastera Competitions

Mastera Translation Prize

The Mastera Translation Prize is a translation competition organised by the Malay Language Council of Singapore. This competition will be carried out for the first time in 2019 as part of efforts to encourage the translation of Malay/Indonesian Literature into English. By translating these works, Mastera hopes to bring and expose Malay literature to a larger and wider international audience. This competition is open to Singapore citizens only.

This Prize will be given to the translation of an original literary work written in Malay/Indonesian. The following are the genres accepted by Mastera Singapore (depending on year the competition is carried out):

 

Genre category

Criteria for submission

Poetry

Every entry must contain the translation of five poems already set by Mastera Singapore.

Short story

Every entry must contain the translation of one short story (5000 word limit) that has been set by Mastera Singapore.

In 2019, Mastera Singapore will be accepting translations of poetry.

The five poems that have been selected from Singapore to be translated this year are as follows:

 

Title

Writer

Sebuah perahu, sebuah pulau

Rasiah Halil

Balada Bukit Botak

Farihan Bahron

Burung-burung Kota Bijaksana

Hartinah Ahmad

Kita Katakan Kota Kita

Masuri S.N.

Kota yang Berjaga

Noor S.I.

These five poems can be found in Annex B.

Writers who wish to submit their translations for the Mastera Translation Prize can do so by 31 May 2019 (Friday), 5pm. The terms and conditions of the competition can be found in Annex A.

The application form can be downloaded here.