venue: Visitors’ Briefing Room, Level 1, National Library. 100 Victoria Street
date | time: Saturday, 6 June 2009 | 2.30pm

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Suchen Christine Lim is perhaps Singapore’s foremost historical novelist, and has written fiction with a variety of settings from nineteenth century Malaya and the Straits Settlements to contemporary Singapore. In a dialogue with Philip Holden co-sponsored by the Singapore Heritage Society, Suchen will explore a variety of issues related to
the presence of history in her literary works. Topics to be discussed include the tension between historical accuracy and the demands of a literary narrative, he intersection between private experience and public history, and the place of women’s stories in re-imagining the history of Singapore. There will also be ample time for questions from the audience.

Su-Chen Christine Lim was born in Malaysia and came to Singapore at the age of 14. She read Literature at the University of Singapore, graduated with a post-graduate diploma in Applied Linguistics and joined the Ministry of Education as a curriculum specialist. She published her first novel Rice Bowl in 1984, and her second novel Gift From The Gods (1990) was nominated for a National Book Development Council award in 1992. That year, Lim won the inaugural Singapore Literature Prize for her third novel Fistful Of Colours (1992). A Bit Of Earth (2000) was also nominated for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2004. Lim retired in August 2003, to devote her time to writing.
Her latest books include: 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).

Dr Philip Holden is Associate Professor of English at National University of Singapore and Vice-President of the Singapore Heritage Society.

Flyer: Writing Historical Fiction: A Dialogue with Suchen Christine Lim – in conversation with Philip Holden ^[2]