Writer Suchen Christine Lim Festival Bound

MEDIA RELEASE
8 December 2003

WRITER SUCHEN CHRISTINE LIM FESTIVAL BOUND

Prizewinning author Suchen Christine Lim becomes the first writer from Singapore to take part in the New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week when she appears as a guest of the Festival in March 2004.

Lim has just been signed up to appear at the Festival.

Described as one of the foremost post-colonial writers in the world today, Lim was the inaugural winner of the Singapore Literature Prize in 1992 for her third novel A Fistful of Colours.

A third generation descendant of illiterate Chinese immigrants, Lim grew up on both sides of the causeway that divides Singapore and Malaysia. This landscape provides the setting for a body of work that touches on the inherent contradictions and limitations of Singaporean politics, as well as the culture and history of her homeland.

Lim was writer-in-residence at the University of Iowa in 2000, and has held similar posts in Australia and Burma.

A Fistful of Colours (1993) is a multi-layered novel that takes in 80 years of Singapore's history in one day in the life of teacher-artist, Su-wen. Lim's most recent novel, A Bit of Earth (2000), set in colonial Malaya subverts colonial stereotypes and is about the rise of a Chinese poet's son from tin miner to tycoon and clan leader who questioned British colonial laws. Other work includes the novels Ricebowl (1984), about a nun who organised a peace march in Singapore and Gift from the Gods (1990) which deals with the loves and values of three women from three generations of the same family. She has also written short fiction and works for children.

Suchen Christine Lim appears at the New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week with the support of the National Arts Council of Singapore.

New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week runs from 9-14 March 2004 and a full event programme will be released on 5 February. The New Zealand International Arts Festival runs from 27 February - 21 March 2004.

www.nzfestival.telecom.co.nz

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