The Apprentice Years: Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s "First" Interview

Shirley Geok-lin Lim (1944-), a Malaysian English language writer who has become a “transnational wanderer” (Newton 85) and a “neo-cosmopolitan-globaletic writer” (Gunew), having lived through several literary transmigrations, has given many interviews in her distinguished career spanning more than fifty years. However, the present interview is presumably her first “serious” interview, intended for a literary journal of distinction. The interview was originally conducted in 1985 by Edwin Thumboo and Wimal Disanayke, two prominent scholars in the field formerly known as “Commonwealth Literature” or “Non-native Writings in English,” now generally known as “Postcolonial Literatures.”