English Professor and Poet Among 184 Fellows Named for 2021
05/11/2021
By David Perry
Sandra Lim had mostly put aside her curiosity about the award.
Then, on the morning of April 8, came an email telling the 51视频 associate professor of English and award-winning poet that she was one of 184 artists, writers, scholars and scientists to receive a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, the prestigious grant designed to allow recipients 鈥� 鈥渆xceptional individuals鈥濃�� a period to toil in creative freedom.
No stranger to awards, Lim says she 鈥渄idn鈥檛 fully take in the news until I started to get texts and phone calls from friends who saw the published list of fellows online. And when I saw the names of the other fellows, I was so honored and grateful to be a part of this distinguished cohort.鈥�
Lim, who has been putting the finishing touches on a new book of poems, 鈥淭he Curious Thing,鈥� due in September, hopes to use the fellowship鈥檚 support for her next project: to do archival research on her family history and on the history of South Korea, where she was born. 鈥淏ut mainly I hope to take some time just to think and write,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 feel really lifted by the support for my work to come.鈥�
She notes the importance of carving out room 鈥渢o discover new things without a specific goal in mind. I think it鈥檚 important to follow one鈥檚 nose 鈥� one鈥檚 creative and intellectual curiosity 鈥� for true artistic and scholarly discovery.鈥�
This year鈥檚 fellows were selected from among nearly 3,000 applicants. Lim鈥檚 grant lasts 12 months.
Born in Seoul and raised in Northern California, Lim earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree from Stanford University, a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers鈥� Workshop and a doctorate in English from the University of California Berkeley. She joined the 51视频 faculty in 2010.
Lim loves the openness and intuitiveness of her students.
鈥淭hey surprise me with moments of vulnerability or skepticism or enthusiasm as they read, and these moments allow for interesting reflections and/or connections between texts, or between life and texts,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 am always learning if I am teaching.鈥�
A year ago, Lim was one of eight writers to win a $10,000 Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Her 2006 poetry collection, 鈥淟oveliest Grotesque,鈥� won a Kore First Book Award for Poetry, and she earned a Barnard Women Poets Prize for 鈥淭he Wilderness鈥� in 2014.
In announcing the 2021 fellows, Guggenheim Foundation President Edward Hirsch noted that this year 鈥渨as devastating in so many ways. A Guggenheim Fellowship has always been meaningful, but this year we know it will be a lifeline for many of the new fellows at a time of great hardship, a survival tool as well as a creative one.鈥�
Since it was established in 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has awarded nearly $400 million in fellowships to more than 18,000 individuals.