Shirley Geok-lin Lim

Amy Lai (Hong Kong Polytechnic University); Revised By: Mohammad A. Quayum (Flinders University)

Ed. by Angelia Poon, Nayang Technological University, Singapore
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.4.2: Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malaysian and Myanmar Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Hannah Ho (University of Brunei Darussalam), Angelia Poon (Nayang Technological University, Singapore)

Dates

Born 27 Dec 1944
Activity 1963-ongoing

Places

Born in Malaysia
Active in Malaysia; United States

Activities

Primary

Poet
Story-writer

Other

Autobiographer
Essayist

Resources

Shirley Geok-lin Lim is an internationally acclaimed poet, novelist, short story writer, memoirist, academic, and literary critic. She has authored twelve volumes of poetry, three short story collections, two novels, a fairy-tale novella for children, and a memoir. She has also authored, edited, or co-edited several volumes of criticism and curated and edited anthologies of Southeast Asian and Asian American literature. Lim’s work reflects the ambivalent and complex imagination of a writer who is Malaysian-Peranakan-Chinese and an Asian American, and who has also lived in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. In a 2003 interview with Quayum, when asked whether “California or Kuala Lumpur [was] your home turf”, she replied, “Kuala Lumpur is definitely not MY [uppercase original] home turf […]. But neither is California”, and added, “my work is deterritorialized […] imagination is a...

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5862 words

Citation: Lai, Amy, Mohammad A. Quayum. "Shirley Geok-lin Lim". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 October 2003; last revised 11 June 2026. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2734, accessed 29 June 2026.]