A stay-at-home mum spent 3 hours each morning writing her first novel – and won the Epigram Books Fiction Prize

What felt more real was the moment she submitted her draft.

In July 2025, Ratna carried five copies of her manuscript in a tote bag to the Epigram Books office in Toa Payoh North. After handing them over, she walked out to the open-air car park beside the industrial building.

Without planning to, she sat down and began to cry. “It was around 10am, and the heat was quite unforgiving – one of those very bright, Singapore days,” she recalled. “It felt very still, like the world had paused for a bit.”

She felt relief mostly, that she had made it to the end. And joy, as she had finally ticked off something that had been sitting with her since she was a child.

“I was flooded with emotions,” said the stay-at-home mother of four, who works part-time as an academic and market researcher, and freelance translator.

After she calmed down, she called her husband at work. “I didn’t really say much. I think I just wanted to hear his voice. That was enough.”

THE FIRST “TO-BE-READ-OUT” MOMENTS

Ratna’s love for stories began with listening. Her father worked shifts – 48 hours at work and the next 48 at home. When he was home, he would put Ratna and her brothers to bed and tell them bedtime stories he’d improvised.

Her mother, who did not learn English in school, taught herself through public libraries – borrowing Danielle Steel novels, cookbooks and children’s books. She worked on her pronunciation by talking to their neighbours and watching Sesame Street and The Electric Company with Ratna.