Suchen Christine Lim

Last updated

Suchen Christine Lim
Born (1948-07-15) 15 July 1948 (age 75)
Ipoh, Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia)
OccupationAuthor
NationalitySingapore
GenreFiction
Notable worksFistful of Colours (1992)
The Lies that Build a Marriage: Stories of the Unsung, Unsaid and Uncelebrated in Singapore(2007)
Notable awards1986: Merit Prize, NUS-Shell Short Play Competition
1992: Inaugural Singapore Literature Prize
2012: S.E.A. Write Award
2023: Cultural Medallion

Books-aj.svg aj ashton 01.svg  Literatureportal

Suchen Christine Lim (born 15 July 1948) is a Malaysian-born Singaporean writer. [1] She was the inaugural winner of the Singapore Literature Prize in 1992. She was awarded Singapore's pinnacle arts award, the Cultural Medallion, in 2023.

Contents

Early life

Lim was born in Ipoh, Federation of Malaya and had her early education at the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) in Penang and Kedah. At the age of 14 she came to Singapore, and continued her education at CHIJ Katong. She read literature at the National University of Singapore, and graduated with a post-graduate diploma in applied linguistics.

Teaching career

After her graduation, Lim joined the Ministry of Education as a literature teacher and a curriculum specialist. She devoted her time between family, work and writing throughout her years with the ministry. [2]

Lim retired from the Ministry of Education in August 2003, to devote her time to writing. That devotion subsequently bore fruit in the novels published as Hua Song: Stories of the Chinese Diaspora (2005) and The Lies that Build a Marriage: Stories of the Unsung, Unsaid and Uncelebrated in Singapore (2007). [2]

Literary works

Lim's first story "The Valley of Golden Showers" was written in 1979 for a children's story competition. [1] A year later, Lim entered another writing competition sponsored by the National Book Council, winning second place. These competitions sparked her interest in becoming a writer. [1]

Lim's first novel Rice Bowl was published in 1984, and she co-wrote the award-winning short play The Amah: A Portrait in Black And White in 1986. Her second novel Gift From The Gods (1990) was nominated for a National Book Development Council award in 1992. In that same year, Lim won the inaugural Singapore Literature Prize for her third novel Fistful of Colours (1992). A Bit of Earth (2000) was nominated for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2004. In 1996 she was given a Fulbright Grant to attend the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and returned to the university as writer-in-residence in 2000. This residency honour was also extended to her at the University of Western Australia in Perth, the Moniack Mhor Writers' Centre in the Scottish Highlands and Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. [2]

In 2015, The Straits Times' Akshita Nanda selected Fistful of Colours as one of 10 classic Singapore novels. She wrote, "The gorgeously detailed A Fistful of Colours by Suchen Christine Lim covers art and women's fight for equal rights over 80 years of Singapore history. The winner of the first Singapore Literature Prize in 1992, it is a fist to the gut with its relentless portrayal of female struggles for power in a patriarchal society that strips women of any right to their sexuality or dignity." [3]

Works

Novels

Short stories

Non-fiction

Children's

Others

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Kiriki Hoffman</span> American science fiction writer

Nina Kiriki Hoffman is an American fantasy, science fiction and horror writer.

Catherine Lim Poh Imm is a Singaporean fiction author known for writing about Singapore society and of themes of traditional Chinese culture. Hailed as the "doyenne of Singapore writers", Lim has published nine collections of short stories, five novels, two poetry collections, and numerous political commentaries to date. Her social commentary in 1994, titled The PAP and the people - A Great Affective Divide and published in The Straits Times, criticised the ruling political party's agendas.

This article deals with writing that deals with LGBT themes in a Singapore context. It covers literary works of fiction, such as novels, short stories, plays and poems. It also includes non-fiction works, both scholarly and targeted at the general reader, such as dissertations, journal or magazine articles, books and even web-based content. Although Singapore lacks a dedicated gay book publisher or gay bookshop, it does have at least one dedicated gay library, Pelangi Pride Centre, which is open weekly to the public. Many of the works cited here may be found both in Pelangi Pride Centre, as well as the National Library or other academic libraries in Singapore, as well as in some commercial bookshops under 'gender studies' sections.

The literature of Singapore comprises a collection of literary works by Singaporeans. It is written chiefly in the country's four official languages: English, Malay, Standard Mandarin and Tamil.

Aaron Lee Soon Yong is a Singaporean prize-winning poet who writes in English. He was born in Malaysia but received his education in Singapore and became a Singaporean in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyril Wong</span> Singaporean poet and author

Cyril Wong is a poet, fiction author and literary critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirley Geok-lin Lim</span> American poet (born 1944)

Shirley Geok-lin Lim is an American writer of poetry, fiction, and criticism. She was both the first woman and the first Asian person to be awarded Commonwealth Poetry Prize for her first poetry collection, Crossing The Peninsula, which she published in 1980. In 1997, she received the American Book Award for her memoir, Among the White Moon Faces.

Edwin Nadason Thumboo B.B.M. is a Singaporean poet and academic who is regarded as one of the pioneers of English literature in Singapore.

The Singapore Literature Prize is a biennial award in Singapore to recognise outstanding published works by Singaporean authors in any of the four official languages: Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. The competition is organised by the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) with the support of the National Arts Council and the National Library Board.

Elizabeth "Lucy" Cousins (1964) is a British author and illustrator of children's books. She is best known for her books featuring Maisy Mouse, referred to as the Maisy Series published from the 1990s onwards, from which the TV series Maisy was created in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Yeo</span> Singaporean poet

Robert Yeo is a Singaporean poet, playwright and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goh Sin Tub</span>

Goh Sin Tub was a well-known pioneer of Singaporean literature. He was a prolific writer of numerous book titles, which includes bestsellers like The Nan-Mei-Su Girls of Emerald Hill, The Ghost Lover of Emerald Hill, and the Ghosts of Singapore. He also wrote a collection of short stories in Malay.

Haresh Sharma is a Singaporean playwright. To date, he has written more than 100 plays that have been staged all over the world, including Singapore, Melbourne, Glasgow, Birmingham, Cairo and London. Sharma has a BA from the National University of Singapore as well as an MA in Playwriting from the University of Birmingham, obtained in 1994 on a Shell-NAC Scholarship. He has also been awarded fellowships and grants by the British Council and the United States Information Service, and was conferred the Young Artist Award in 1997. His play, Still Building, was awarded a Merit Singapore Literature Prize in 1993 while Off Centre was selected by the Ministry of Education as a Literature text for 'N’ and 'O’ levels, and republished by The Necessary Stage in 2006. In 2014, Sharma was awarded the prestigious S.E.A. Write Award. In 2015, he was awarded the Cultural Medallion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boey K. Cheng</span> Singapore-born Australian poet

Boey Kim Cheng is a Singaporean Australian poet.

Wena Poon is a lawyer and novelist based in the United States. She writes English-language fiction. Her work has been seen by academics in the UK, US and Singapore as representative of the transnationalism of her generation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rex Shelley</span> Singaporean author (1930–2009)

Rex Anthony Shelley was a Singaporean author. A graduate of the University of Malaya in Malaysia and Cambridge trained in engineering and economics, Shelley managed his own business and also worked as member of the Public Service Commission (PSC) for over 30 years. For his service, he was conferred the Bintang Bakti Masyarakat by the Government of Singapore in 1978, and an additional Bar the next year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohammad A. Quayum</span>

Mohammad A. Quayum is an academic, writer, editor, critic and translator.

Desmond Sim Kim Jin is a Singaporean playwright, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and painter. His work, Places Where I've Been, won a Merit Prize in the 1993 Singapore Literature Prize for Poetry.

Madeleine Lee is an investment manager and poet in Singapore.

Wong Fang Yan, better known by her pseudonym Kwan Shan Mei, was a Chinese-born artist based in Singapore.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Quayum, Mohammad A. (2007). "Interview with Suchen Christine Lim". Mohammad A. Quayum, ed. Peninsular Muse: Interviews with Modern Malaysian and Singaporean Poets, Novelists and Dramatists.
  2. 1 2 3 Yap, Stephanie (4 May 2008). "Soulful writer in pursuit of happiness". The Straits Times. Singapore.
  3. Nanda, Akshita. "10 Singapore stories to ponder". The Straits Times. Singapore Press Holdings. Retrieved 28 January 2015.