Shirley Geok-lin Lim Reads from Latest Poetry Collection, In Praise of Limes

On March 28, the English department hosted a book launch and reading by Shirley Geok-lin Lim for her new poetry book In Praise of Limes via zoom. The event opened with an introduction from Professor Stephen Hong Sohn, then Lim read from her new book and a question and answer session followed. The evening was instilled with a sense of kindness and community.  

In Praise of Limes is Lim’s eleventh poetry collection. She is also a celebrated scholar, who is well known for helping found Asian American literary studies, and an incredible mentor, having chaired and served on countless dissertation committees. 

“Beyond her incredible creative capabilities,” Professor Hong Sohn added, “I have always looked up to Shirley as a model for a person who balances her work alongside the construction of community. She is simply inspirational!”

Making some introductory remarks before beginning her reading, Lim explained that her latest poetry book explores Ecoanxiety, trying to find a balance between what she terms as the two edges of such anxiety: doomism and hopium. Her collection moves through the twelve months of the year and is locationally situated in Santa Barbara, although, she added that Santa Barbara functions as a marker for the USA, which is a place marker for the entire planet. 

She shared that she has written poems every day since 2015, and out of those 400 poems have come her eleven poetry collections. As she read through the selected poems for the event, she shared her influences including but not limited to Robert Burns’s “To a Mouse,” T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, and Auden’s “In Praise of Limsetone,” on which the title of her book riffs. 

Lim was asked if she had any advice for aspiring Asian American poets and she emphasized the importance of finding a mentor. Answering a question about process, she explained:

“I usually begin writing a poem while I’m on my walk, then I put it into my computer, changing my scribbles. I love line breaks. For me, a poem is always about line breaks. Then I sit down and play with that poem; craft is play.”

She added that what inspired her to begin writing poetry was the love of reading. For her, poetry has always been a way to express anxieties and fantasies; a way to turn loss and pain into something else. In her own collection, In Praise of Limes, she said she had tried to turn pain into something else.

The event was made possible in short by the support of the A&S Dean's Council (Eva Badowska, Maura Mast, Tyler Stovall, Patrick Hornbeck, Laura Auricchio), the A&S Dean's Challenge Grant, The Office of Diversity, Rafael Zapata, Anne Fernald, and funds made available through the Teaching Race Across the Curriculum Grant. The event is part of a larger initiative to increase Asian American content for Fordham University; such content has been propelled by the work of a graduate assistant team that includes Corinna Cape, Lina Jiang, and Tripat Rihal. Rihal, in particular, provided her tech support throughout this specific zoom event, occasionally including poetic excerpts via the share screen function.

Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s Crossing the Peninsula received the British Commonwealth Poetry Prize, first for a woman and Asian. She has published ten poetry collections, and three chapbooks. Her poetry has been widely anthologized; published in journals like The Hudson Review, Feminist Studies and Virginia Quarterly Review; featured in television by Bill Moyers, in Tracey K. Smith’s Slowdown, and set to music as libretto for various scores. She received the American Book Awards for the edited anthology, The Forbidden Stitch, and her memoir, Among the White Moon Faces; MELUS and Feminist Press Lifetime Achievement Awards, UCSB’s Research Lecturer Award, and is also author of three novels, The Shirley Lim Collection, three short story collections, and two critical studies, and editor/co-editor of over 18 anthologies and special issues of journals.