Singapore writer Ratna Damayanti Taha wins Epigram Books Fiction Prize with debut novel

SINGAPORE – Singaporean writer Ratna Damayanti Taha’s debut novel Mind The Gap has beaten more than 50 manuscripts from across South-east Asia to win the Epigram Books Fiction Prize (EBFP) 2026, organiser Epigram Literary Foundation announced at an award ceremony at the Amara Singapore on Jan 22.

In addition to a $25,000 cash prize, the 45-year-old stay-at-home mum of four’s work will be published in July across six ASEAN countries – Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Myanmar.

Hers will be the first of Epigram’s novels to go regional

after the publisher inked an unprecedented multi-territory publishing agreement in October 2025

.

Ratna, who works part-time as an academic communications researcher and translator, thanked her two storyteller parents in her speech. Parts of the novel were written as early as 2017, and a visibly emotional Ratna said she cried when she submitted the manuscript to Epigram in 2025.

Mind The Gap is a coming-of-age novel which follows Nora, a data-loving Malay girl navigating Singapore’s ever-expanding MRT lines and narrowing social expectations from the 1990s to the present.

She tells The Straits Times: “My eldest daughter has read the manuscript – she’s the only one in my immediate family who has. In the first act of the book, the protagonist is a teenager at an age range she can identify with. She was affected by certain things (in the novel). It turns out that, in Singapore, some traumas are enduring.”

On the book’s multinational reach, she says: “It’s unreal, isn’t it, for a Singaporean girl growing up in Bedok? Frankly, it’s a bit unbelievable. I think my brain has not yet processed 100 per cent what it means to reach other countries beyond our shores.”

Singaporean film-maker Anthony Chen,

who was one of five judges for the book prize, announced Ratna as the winner on Jan 22. He said in his speech: “The novel’s true power lies in its layered critique of systemic structures. It moves beyond the lead protagonist to dissect the machinery of meritocracy, race and governance. Stylistically, the novel is very much a triumph of voice.”

The other judges are National University of Singapore Professor Emeritus Rajeev Patke, who said the book was “written with an edginess that is often close to brilliant”; Ms Andrea Pasion-Flores, publisher of Milflores Publishing in the Philippines; Popular Singapore chief executive Emily Yiu; and Mr Edmund Wee, publisher of Epigram Books and a

finalist for the 11th The Straits Times Singaporean of the Year award

.

The other shortlisted writers receive a $5,000 prize each and their books will also be published across six countries. They are Singaporean writer Jaclyn Lim’s A Strange Case Of Erasure, to be published in August; Malaysian writer Kwan Ann Tan’s A Family Inconvenience, slated for September; and Burmese writer May Thanakhar’s Take Me Back To Yangon, which will hit bookstores in October.

Ms Pasion-Flores, who is publishing the four titles for the Philippines market, pushed Mr Wee to make the book prize’s reach regional. Her push arose from the fact that she was interested in The Accidental Malay by Karina Robles Bahrin, which won the EBFP in 2022.

Mind The Gap will be Milflores Publishing’s second Singaporean book as it previously published pseudonymous writer Millie Lee’s Dirty Old Media Men (2023).

Ms Pasion-Flores says: “It’s also a bit of an experiment. We want to see how our markets will receive each other’s work because it’s so easy to read the West if you’ve been educated in the Western canon. There are barriers because we are such a diverse region and so the cultural nuances are still there.”

Now in its 10th edition, the EBFP has published 58 novels to date. Previous winners include Singaporean writer Meihan Boey, who won twice with

The Mystical Mister Kay

and The Formidable Miss Cassidy.

The 2027 EBFP – which is open to writers across South-east Asia and accepts full-length manuscripts written in or translated into English – is open for submissions from Jan 22 to Aug 1.