Theme: Hidden in Plain Sight
SWF 2026 challenges festivalgoers to question their assumptions about what’s obvious and obscured in this era of shifting narratives. As facts and fiction interweave, the Festival explores how the notion of “truth” can be (de)constructed, reinterpreted or concealed in literature and beyond.
ABOUT SINGAPORE WRITERS FESTIVAL (SWF)
The Singapore Writers Festival, one of Asia's premier literary events, started in 1986 as a biennial festival. Now organised by Arts House Group, SWF is a highly anticipated event on the cultural calendar, presenting the world's major literary talents to Singaporeans while shining a spotlight on homegrown and Southeast Asian creative talents.
Over the years, the Festival has evolved into a vibrant gathering for writers, academics, and thinkers, offering a diverse array of panel discussions, workshops, lectures, and performances. It has featured literary luminaries such as two-time Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood, Whitbread First Novel Award winner Zadie Smith, British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Nebula Award winner Ted Chiang, and Lambda Literary Award winner Roxane Gay. The Singapore Writers Festival is one of the few multi-lingual literary festivals in the world, celebrating the written and spoken word in Singapore's official languages – English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Read more about SWF here: https://singaporewritersfestival.com/
Event guidelines
Submit by: 20 July 2026, 11.59pm
Prizes & Perks:
Selected entries will be featured at an installation during Singapore Writers Festival 2026 (from 13 – 22 Nov).
The first three schools to submit at least 50 entries will receive:
20 complimentary SWF 2025 Youth Passes
20% off any additional Youth Passes purchased*
50 Pilot Frixion Pens
*Terms & conditions apply.
The Ending is Yours: A Mystery Writing Challenge
Think you can crack the case? The ending is in your hands!
Step into the shoes of a detective and unravel a crime mystery using an evidence board packed with pictorial clues. Your challenge: craft an ending in 200 words or fewer that explains the mystery logically, surprises the reader and leaves them satisfied with an underlying message that crime ultimately doesn't pay. Will you deliver a shocking twist, a clever reveal, or a nail-biting cliffhanger? Recommended for ages 10 to 18.
The Case of the Vanishing Diamond
At exactly 3.17pm, the lights flicker inside the prestigious Aurora Museum before blacking out. When the power is restored seconds later, the Star of Nyx, a priceless black diamond, has vanished from its glass vault in the centre of Gallery 13.
There are no signs of forced entry. The alarm system never sounded. The vault remains locked.
Four people were in the gallery at the time:
1.The museum curator, preparing for a private viewing;
2.A security guard stationed by the gallery’s entrance;
3.A renowned art restorer examining a nearby painting;
4.A student intern cataloguing artifact.
Security footage shows only a brief blackout and nothing more.
Scattered across the scene are small, strange details. A smudged fingerprint. A fallen brochure. A watch that has stopped ticking.
Was this an inside job? A carefully timed trick? Or something hiding in plain sight?
Enlarge, zoom in and uncover hidden “gems”!
Study the evidence board and write the ending.
Who took the diamond, and how?
Pick one of these three ways to close your story — then write it!
The Twist Ending
Just when readers think they know who did it — surprise! Someone completely unexpected turns out to be the culprit. Everything the reader believed gets flipped on its head.
Writing prompts: What clues did you hide earlier that now make the twist make sense? How do your characters react when the real culprit is revealed?
The Resolved Ending
The detective gathers everyone together and walks through every clue — step by step — until the full picture clicks into place. Readers feel the satisfying snap of a case closed.
Writing prompts:
In what order will your detective reveal the clues for maximum impact? How does the culprit respond as the evidence stacks up against them?
The Cliffhanger
Most of the mystery is solved — but one lingering question remains. Readers close the last page satisfied yet still buzzing with curiosity, desperate to know what happens next.
Writing prompts: Which loose end will you leave dangling and why does it matter? What's the last image or line you'll leave your reader with?
Content guidelines
This is a fiction writing challenge, so you're welcomed to invent "facts" that are not reflected on the evidence board.
You can introduce new characters aside from the four suspects - for example, a new suspect or the investigator handling the case.
New characters or evidence that you invent should not be at odds with the current info collected on the evidence board.
Optional: Aside from writing your story ending in third-person, you can also write in firstperson (using "I"), putting yourself into the story as the investigator or the culprit.
Please note that we do not accept any works that promotes any form of discrimination, including towards any nationality, religion, gender, or race.
Individual submissions
Submit via www.easternwood.co/swf2026-the-ending-is-yours
Group/bulk submissions
Please submit the entries to hello@easternwood.co in a Google/Excel sheet in the following format:
Selection rubric
Excellent Good Poor
Writing
Theme Relevance
The writing is highly engaging, with expressive storytelling. The writing is effective in its storytelling. The ideas expressed in the writing are unclear.
The elements of detective fiction are well-adopted to craft and present a satisfactory ending. The ideas presented in the story builds on the given theme. There is no relevance to the theme.
Plot Logicality
The story presents a unique and logical perspective, a development that has yet to be considered by others.
The flow of events is logical and the character relationship(s) or motive(s) are relevant.
The flow of events and/or relationships between characters does not make sense.
For enquiries relating to the submissions, please contact hello@easternwood.co
For all other enquiries, please contact ticketing@artshouse.sg
About Arts house group
Arts House Group (AHG) is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to enriching lives through the transformative power of the arts. As a key part of Singapore’s arts and cultural landscape, AHG presents the nation’s two flagship festivals – the Singapore International Festival of Arts and the Singapore Writers Festival – and oversees six key arts venues: The Arts House at the Old Parliament, Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall, Drama Centre, and the creative hubs Goodman Arts Centre, Aliwal Arts Centre, and Stamford Arts Centre.
AHG fosters artistic excellence at all stages of an artist’s journey, offering dynamic spaces for practice, presentation and exchange - empowering artists to create, express, collaborate and connect with diverse audiences. Through artist tenancies, commissions, festivals and public programmes, we champion Singapore’s creative talents while fostering meaningful audience engagement and shared experiences across communities. Our Cultural Medallion Story also honours the nation’s most accomplished artists, celebrating their enduring contributions to the arts.
For more information, visit artshousegroup.sg.
About Billy Yong, Illustrator
Billy Yong likes drawing cute things, silly things and (sometimes) morbid things. Billy's work include love-your-earth goodness like Green Jolene to action-packed-fireball-shooting-infernal-hands like Thrash Force and Thor Quest. He's also had a hand making picture books with goofball shenanigans like My Pet Feet, among many other projects.
Billy also makes stickers, prints and random things. When he’s not making art, he’s busy teaching Iaido (Japanese sword drawing) drinking bubble tea and being papa.
Find Billy at this channels:
@billyyongdraws
@enzaniaido
About Eastern Wood
Founded in 2024, Eastern Wood is a publisher based in Singapore, with a focus on curating and developing science fiction and speculative fiction across cultures, using Singapore as a vantage point for engaging with different ways of imagining and understanding the world.
While our early list has focused on Chinese authors, we are increasingly working with voices from Southeast Asia and beyond, bringing together stories shaped by different cultural contexts, narrative traditions, and ways of thinking. We also organise occasional events to discover emerging writers and engage readers in meaningful dialogue, with the aim of nurturing a vibrant and sustainable sci-fi and literary community.
THANK YOU
Organised By Commissioned By Supported By Made Possible By Programme Partner
