Hilary Tham (August 20, 1946 – June 24, 2005), also known as Hilary Tham Goldberg, was a

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

n-born American poet. Tham studied English literature in Malaysia before marrying an American

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...

worker. She then converted to

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

and immigrated to the U.S. Tham published many books of poetry and was editor-in-chief for the nonprofit poetry publishing house, Word Works.

Biography

The daughter of

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

immigrants, Hilary Tham was born in Klang,

. She attended a convent school run by

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

nuns, a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

school run by Dominican friars, and a prep school in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

. She received her bachelor's degree in English literature from the

University of Malaya The University of Malaya ( ms, Universiti Malaya, UM; abbreviated as UM or informally the Malayan University) is a public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest and highest ranking Malaysian institution of highe ...

in 1969. She converted to

after marrying Jewish-American

worker, Joseph Goldberg, in Malaysia. In 1971, the couple immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, first settling in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

and then moving to

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...

two years later. She chaired the Northern Virginia Coalition, a nonprofit organization that helped to resettle

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

ese refugees, and served as sisterhood president at her synagogue, which is now the Congregation Etz Hayim in Arlington. Tham was editor-in-chief for Word Works, a nonprofit poetry publishing house, and was poetry editor for the ''

Potomac Review ''Potomac Review'' is a bi-annual American literary journal based in Rockville, Maryland. It publishes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction from established as well as emerging writers. Writers who have contributed to this journal include Amina Gau ...

''. She taught creative writing at various nearby schools, including Yorktown High School and Williamsburg Middle School, and was an Oriental brush painter. She died in Arlington at the age of 58 from

metastatic Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

. Tham reflected upon both Asian and American culture in her work. She has been categorized as a "Chinese-Malaysian writer with Judaic influences." Two of her books have appeared in the curriculum of the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

Legacy

In 2005, Word Works renamed their Capital Collection the Hilary Tham Capital Collection in her honor.

Awards and honors

Tham's collection of poems, ''Bad Names for Women'', won second prize in the 1988 Virginia Poetry Prizes and the 1990 Paterson Poetry Prize. ''Tin Mines and Concubines'' received the Washington Writers Publishing House Prize.

Selected works

Poetry

* ''No Gods Today''. 1969. * ''Paper Boats: Poems''. 1987. . * ''Bad Names for Women''. 1989. . * ''Tigerbone Wine (Poems)''. 1992. . * ''Men & Other Strange Myths: Poems and Art''. 1994. . * ''Counting: A Long Poem''. 2000. . * ''Reality Check & Other Travel Poems & Art''. 2001. . * ''The Tao of Mrs. Wei''. 2003. .

Memoir

* ''Lane With No Name: Memoirs and Poems of a Malaysian-Chinese Girlhood''. 1997. .

Short story

* ''Tin Mines and Concubines''. 2005. .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tham, Hilary Malaysian poets Malaysian short story writers American women poets American short story writers 1946 births 2005 deaths Malaysian people of Chinese descent Malaysian women writers Malaysian women poets Malaysian women short story writers American poets American writers of Chinese descent Malaysian emigrants to the United States 20th-century converts to Judaism 20th-century American Jews Deaths from lung cancer 20th-century Malaysian people 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets 21st-century short story writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century Malaysian women writers 21st-century Malaysian women writers 20th-century Malaysian writers 21st-century Malaysian writers University of Malaya alumni 21st-century American Jews