Written over the last decade, these poems include memories of the author's early childhood in Malaysia, immigration to America, and travel throughout the world, and affirmations of motherhood and maturity in the New World. From her background as a Malaysian Chinese later assimilated into Western culture, she has emerged with her own voice, combining bittersweet laughter and realistic affirmation. This unique voice establishes her as an important poet.
 "Here are the lines of loss--of family, country, self--yet what is lost is found, and these poems probe a woman's many and changing truths in language that will deepen the vision of every reader. "--Alicia Ostriker

What the Fortune Teller Didn't Say

Literature & Fiction

Lim, Shirley Geok-Lin

Poetry

West End Press

The first and best Asian American women's anthology, edited by Shirley Geok-lin Lim and Mayumi Tsutakawa

The Forbidden Stitch: An Asian American Women's Anthology

Tsutakawa, Mayumi

History & Criticism

Calyx Books

Walking Backwards is about making a home when you are a nomad, and adding an American self to the many selves that the world's myriad, bewildering places throw at one body. It is about how travel and restlessness wrench us and teach us about ourselves, how our losses compound our loves, and how endlessly absorbing the idea of home remains, particularly when we keep losing sight of it. Orbiting the globe, this collection narrates encounters in a transnational American's circuit. As much about Hong Kong as the west coast of the United States, it bundles transients and family, nature and city, the still point within and characters everywhere, to produce a fresh, ethnically inflected poetics.

Walking Backwards: New Poems

“Lim’s poems capture the spirit of California with beauty and insight.”―Jon Parrish Peede, editor, Virginia Quarterly Review“Shirley Lim’s poems sing with the defiance of Blake and Yeats, clapping hands ‘for every tatter in our mortal dress.’ The song is fierce, the vision incisively clear-eyed―supremely mature, an unsentimental perception of humanity and nature. The Irreversible Sun’s song soars even in direst loss.”―Anca Vlasopolos, author of Cartographies of Scale (and Wing)“Shirley Lim’s poetry simultaneously puzzles and clarifies. These poems are rich in sense of place and startling juxtapositions: gingkos, coastal oaks, and magpies alongside glittery garbage. They move and surprise like the cracks and slides of the earth.”―Diane Thiel, poet, author, and professor, University of New Mexico

The Irreversible Sun

In Praise of Limes is a book of original poems by Shirley Geok-lin Lim. Born in Malacca, Malaysia, Shirley Geok-lin Lim was raised by her Chinese father and attended missionary schools. Although her first languages were Malay and the Hokkin dialect of Chinese, she was able to read English by the time she was six. At 10, her first poem was published in the Malacca Times; by age 11, she knew she wanted to be a poet. She earned her BA from the University of Malaya and her PhD from Brandeis University. 
Lim considers herself primarily a poet, although she has also written books of short stories, criticism, a novel, and a memoir. Her debut collection, Crossing the Peninsula and Other Poems (1980), won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize-a first for a woman or a person from Asia. Her other collections include Ars Poetica for the Day (2015), The Irreversible Sun (2015), Do You Live In? (2015), and Embracing the Angel: Hong Kong Poems (2014). Her many awards and honors include a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer award, two American Book Awards, and the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States Lifetime Achievement Award. 
Lim was a professor of English and chair of the Women's Studies department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She retired in 2012 after more than a decade of service to the school.

In Praise of Limes

Sungold Editions

articulates the cultural dilemma facing post-colonial writers.  Based upon Professor Lim's experiences observations and research these  ten essays explore themes of nationalism secularization politics  cultural pluralism and feminist theory.  As a multi-hyphenated poet and  scholar (Chinese-Malaysian-American) Professor Lim brings fresh insight  to the whole concept of cultural studies. the result is a vivid lucid  work which will entertain and enlighten both student and general  reader.

Writing S.E./Asia in English: Against the Grain, Focus on Asian English-Language Literature (Skoob Pacifica Series)

Essays & Correspondence

Skoob Books Pub Ltd

Joss and Gold

History

Asia

Times Books International

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Books by Lim, Shirley Geok-Lin