Catherine Lim was born on 21 March 1942 in Penang, Malaysia. She moved to Singapore in her 20s. Often described as the doyenne of Singapore literature, she is known for her popular tomes of historical fiction and romance, set in the perfumed and exoticised worlds of old Singapore and Malaysia (Little Ironies; The Bondmaid; The Shadow of a Shadow of a Dream; The Teardrop Story Woman). An accomplished writer, she is also an outspoken voice on contemporary social and cultural issues, regularly giving talks at international seminars and writing festivals, and writing commentaries for international dailies.

Catherine Lim was born in Penang, Malaysia, as the eighth child in a family of 14 children. Growing up, she frequently listened to the stories of her grandfather and mother. This early exposure to storytelling, together with her early education in a convent school, would greatly influence her later literary work.

Lim would go on to graduate from the University of Malaya with a Bachelors in English, the National University of Singapore with a Ph.D in Applied Linguistics, and Columbia University in New York and University of California in the Fulbright Program.

She started her professional career in education, teaching in local schools and junior colleges. After stints as an administrator and lecturer at the Regional Language Centre and the Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore, Lim began writing full-time in 1992. At the same time, she also wrote a column for The Straits Times.

Her first book Little Ironies: Short Stories of Singapore was an instant bestseller, and brought her into prominence. Her second book Or Else, The Lightning God and Other Stories established her position as a literary voice. These two collections of short stories—comprising vignettes of life in Singapore—would become Literature examination texts for the GCE O level examinations.

She moved on to writing novels, and it was these works that would bring Lim to international renown and acclaim. Earlier receiving awards from the National Book Development Council of Singapore for her short story collections, she also received the Montblanc-NUS Centre for the Arts Literary Award in 1998 and the prestigious South East Asia Writers Award in 1999. She was further awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Literature by Murdoch University, Australia and received the Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et Des Lettres by the Ministry for Culture and Communications of France for her contributions to literature.

A running theme in her writing is the spirited female protagonist caught in the proverbial clash between tradition and modernity, who makes interesting and often difficult life choices. Her works contain strong themes of traditional Chinese culture, which becomes a backdrop against which she stages her characters' struggles for independence.

Lim herself is a larger-than-life personality in literary and artistic circles, describing herself as “a mass, and a mess, of irreconcilables”. She is frequently seen and heard dispensing witticisms while immaculately dressed in her stunning cheongsams. Today, Lim continues to maintain a personal website (catherinelim.sg), where she regularly publishes short pieces of social and political commentary.