As part of International Holocaust Memory Day in Singapore, the British Council, in collaboration with the British High Commission and the Embassy of Israel, ran a creative writing competition via British Council’s online platform Writing the Citythat offered emerging and established writers opportunities to share their work, receive feedback and take their writing forward.
The competition called on writers from different cultural backgrounds to reflect on the theme of The Importance of Remembering in relation to the Holocaust, underlining the vital need to remember and strive to prevent crimes against humanity around the world. The competition, in line with wider British Council values of bringing people together and creating understanding, aimed to encourage tolerance and the acceptance of diversity via the sharing of perspectives.
The winning author had their work read at a special event to commemorate International Holocaust Memory Day, attended by the British High Commissioner and the Israeli Ambassador to Singapore. Rabbi Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, will be sharing the poem through his networks, and the Embassy of Israel have had several phone calls from people asking for the piece.