Danielle Lim, Award-Winning Author of 3 Books
Danielle Lim is an award-winning author of three books. Her short story collection, And Softly Go the Crossings, won the Book of the Year as well as Best Literary Work in the Singapore Book Awards 2021.
Podcast
Overview
Martin Luther has said, “If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.” If not directly changing the world, one can surely do it by changing one’s own life. We know the power of putting thoughts on paper through writing. And, who doesn’t love their favorite authors who have the power to transport us to a different world? These writers enter our hearts as they relate with us through their stories. It is reading such relatable books that help us develop ideas, inculcate healthy changes, or just feel the emotions we want to feel.
Today, we have an award-winning writer, Danielle Lim, who talks about her view of relating with the readers.
About Danielle Lim
Danielle Lim is an award-winning author of three books. She has written fiction in the form of memoirs and short stories. Besides being a writer, she is a lecturer at Nanyang and Republic Polytechnics. Today, we talk to her about her books, her writing style, ways to find ideas, and her thoughts on being a writer.
DISCUSSION
Danielle talks about her urge to connect with readers as a writer. She feels writing is not just about technique, but about understanding life and people. She remarks, “It is about understanding what it needs to be a human.”She talks further about the meaning of a successful story. Furthermore, she emphasises on the importance of it being both personal and universal. As she says, “There must be some connection with certain common threads that bind as human beings.”
Danielle further talks about not being a structured writer as she juggles multiple professional and personal roles in life. She doesn’t identify with the concept of writer’s block and says, “Naturally, all of us can’t write all the time. It is about being open to what is around you and writing when it strikes.”
Danielle’s Books
Danielle shares her book of short stories, “And Softly Go the Crossings” published By Penguin Singapore.
She reads a prologue,
“And softly go the crossings,
Unheard, Unseen.
Beauty plays with darkness!
Love in one embrace!
Dancing out into the light!
Scent of a different hue,
And gazing on the face unchanged,
The world keeps up its bliss.”
She has written these short stories over the years. Danielle also draws a comparison of writing short stories vs. a full-length book. She further talks about her novel, “Trafalgar Sunrise”, which is a story of a nurse battling at the frontline during the SARS epidemic. The nurse looks back at her young career when she had leprosy. The book was published in 2018 before COVID ha hit. Danielle talks about her motivation to celebrate the frontline heroes who handle infectious diseases.
She has also written a book, a memoir called “The Sound of SCH”, which has won the Singapore Literature Prize. The book is about her uncle who had schizophrenia and how her mother handled situations as a caregiver. Danielle tells that a lot of people came out to thank her for bringing forth a topic of taboo.
More About Danielle
Danielle ends the conversation by talking about the difficulties of finding a publisher as a first-time author. She gives the choice of self-publishing. However, she believes that getting a publisher always forces a writer to have a quality check and up the game of writing craft.
Profile
Danielle Lim is an award-winning author of three books. Her short story collection, And Softly Go the Crossings, won the Book of the Year as well as Best Literary Work in the Singapore Book Awards 2021.
Her novel, Trafalgar Sunrise, was shortlisted for Best Literary Work in the Singapore Book Awards 2019. Her memoir, The Sound of SCH: A Mental Breakdown, a Life Journey, won the Singapore Literature Prize 2016 (non-fiction), and has been translated to Chinese and Tamil, published in Taiwan and India.
The Publishers Weekly (US) listed Danielle as one of Singapore’s top writers in 2016. Her works have been featured in The Straits Times, BiblioAsia, on radio 938Now and ABC Radio Australia, in The West Australian and other publications. She has been invited to speak at various local and international events, including the Singapore Writers Festival, the Kimberley Writers Festival, and the George Town Literary Festival.
Danielle is an alumna of the University of Oxford and resides in Singapore, where she is a lecturer.
