Bodies of Separation

Poetry by Chim Sher Ting.
Originally from a sunny tropical island in Southeast Asia, Sher Ting is a
Singaporean-Chinese currently residing in Australia. She is a 2021 Pushcart and Best of The Net nominee, in addition to being a 2021 Writeability Fellow with Writers Victoria and a finalist in The New York Times Asia-Pacific Writing Competition. She has work published in OSU The Journal, Pleiades, The Pinch, Rust and Moth and elsewhere. Her work speaks of themes of dislocation/dissociation, loneliness/loss and memory/nostalgia. She hopes, through her work, to highlight oft-rejected narratives of minority identity, in addition to exploring the plurality of the body and identity. She can be found at sherting.carrd.co
What does it mean to be Chinese when your version of culture is different from your grandparents'?
What does it mean to be Chinese in an anglo-centric society?
BODIES OF SEPARATION is an exploration of identity and relationships with one's home country through the lens of language, incorporating themes of loneliness/loss and memory/nostalgia while confronting larger issues of race, culture and heritage. It seeks to erase the borders between English and Chinese poetry, that the words may find their measure of home in the nexus of two identities.
'Our names were all expanse/ 2718 miles and the length of an umbilical cord,' reads the opening poem of Sher Ting's astounding collection BODIES OF SEPARATION. It is merely the first instance of candor and beauty in a book rife with such lightning-bright revelations. These poems are a tender missive to all the liminal places a body in migration passes through to meet itself: in yearning, in languages lost or retrieved, in spaces that hold us conditionally. There is an undeniable, oceanic pull to these poems, and Sher Ting is a writer I trust to sweep me out into wild currents where anything is possible- and back again to safety.
- Jihyun Yun, Author of Some Are Always Hungry
An assured debut that feels more like a full-length collection than a chapbook in its impressive amplitude and depth, a mature, meditative voice with a beautiful tone and lyrical pitch that give these explorations of diasporic themes a compelling freshness of insight and imagination. Especially exquisite are the graceful cadences that enable each poem to find its measure and home between the borders of two languages.
- Boey Kim Cheng, Author of Between Stations: Essays and The Singer and Other Poems
In this vibrant, valiant collection, Sher Ting excavates the complexities of coming from multiple countries, dual languages, and diverse influences... Often writing on dislocation and the isolation created by brute forces, Sher Ting bravely denounces the interrelated structures and cruelties of racism and bigotry. Painting with a masterfully defiant brush, Sher Ting cleverly brings us into her world of clashing realities, identities, and idols and asks: "Why does our existence/ have to be a fight?" Sher Ting is an electrifying, singular voice in poetry; a rising star. Go read this book!
- Jose Hernandez Diaz, Author of The Fire Eater & Bad Mexican, Bad American