What the Fortune Teller Didn't Say
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
Shirley Geok-lin Lim was born in Malacca, Malaysia. Her Crossing the Peninsula won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize; she has published four more volumes of poetry, including What the Fortune Teller Didn’t Say (West End Press, 1998). She has also published three short story collections, two novels, and a memoir, Among the White Moon Faces, which received the American Book Award for nonfiction. She is professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
