Singaporean Stroke Survivor and Author Terence Ang Receives International Recognition Through the NYC Big Book Award®

Pioneering Singaporean author wins for his groundbreaking AI-narrated audiobook, highlighting possibilities for creative expression through AI voice technology.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, September 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The NYC Big Book Award recognized Brokenness Becomes Beautiful: Inspiring Pieces Of Poetry by Terence Ang as the winner in the Audiobook: Poetry/Memoir category.

The competition is judged by experts from different aspects of the book industry, including publishers, booksellers, librarians and professional copywriters. Winners are based on overall excellence.

Brokenness Becomes Beautiful is an innovative poetry audiobook narrated using an AI-generated digital recreation of Ang’s own voice. Living with aphasia following a stroke in 2020, Ang used AI voice-cloning technology to find another way to narrate his own words in a voice recognizably connected to him.

The poetry collection draws on Ang’s lived experience of stroke, aphasia, identity, healing and the continuing process of rebuilding a life after profound change.

Aphasia is an acquired language disorder caused by injury to the brain. It can affect a person’s ability to speak, understand language, read and write. While aphasia affects communication, it does not by itself imply a loss of intelligence or the ability to think.

Because aphasia changed Ang’s ability to speak fluently, narrating an audiobook in the conventional way presented a significant challenge. Using recordings of his speech made after his stroke, AI voice technology enabled the creation of a digital version of his voice that could narrate his poetry.

The result is an audiobook believed to be among the first of its kind: a poetry collection by an author living with aphasia narrated through an AI-generated version of his own voice.

NYC Big Book Award received book submissions worldwide. Entrepreneurs, Film & Television writers, Historians, and Journalists, from well established to first time indie authors and presses participated.

Entries this year were received from the United States as well as countries such as Australia, Canada, Dubai, England, France, Ghana, Greece, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Cities represented among the entries were Auckland, Frankfurt, Hollywood, Johannesburg, NYC, Philadelphia, Sydney, and West Palm Beach.

Publishers included Beacon Press, Berrett-Koehler, Casemate, Edinburgh University Press, Forbes Books, Kiplinger Books, NYU Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Rizzoli, Routledge, The White House Historical Association, University of California Press, and Wiley.

We have an amazing list of authors from around the globe participating this year, said awards sponsor Gabby Olczak. I’m so excited to share these books with a worldwide readership!

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ABOUT THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR

Terence Ang is an award-winning Singaporean author, artist, stroke survivor and aphasia advocate whose work explores resilience, recovery, identity and the power of creative expression. After suffering a stroke in W2020, Terence developed aphasia, a language disorder that profoundly changed the way he communicates. While he continues to live with aphasia and its expressive challenges, writing has become an important means of reflection, self-expression and connection.

Through memoir, poetry and visual storytelling, Terence shares lived experiences of silence, struggle, healing and renewal, creating greater awareness of aphasia while offering hope to stroke survivors, caregivers and others navigating profound life change.

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ABOUT THE AWARD
See the NYC Big Book winners at: https://www.nycbigbookaward.com/. NYC Big Book Award is announced every fall. NYC Big Book Award is open to all authors, publishers, and illustrators, and includes submissions from the big five publishers.

Join us for the Awards Dinner on April 10th, https://www.nycbigbookaward.com/awardsdinner, held at the BookCAMP event, April 9-10, 2027, https://www.ipabookcamp.com, where recipients from both NYC Big Book and Independent Press Award programs will walk on stage to receive their awards.

The Independent Press Award (IPA), https://www.independentpressaward.com/, is a prestigious annual book awards program specifically designed to honor excellence in the independent publishing community. It is open to self-published authors, small presses, and university presses worldwide. The Independent Press Award is announced every spring and is open to independent authors and publishers.

Gabby Olczak
NYC Big Book Award
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