By the way, have you heard about this author?

If there’s a book publishing project which stole our attention lately,–and really can’t wait to see that when its published–, is probably a new imprint initiated by Lontar Foundation, titled BTW Books.


Happily, we had an opportunity to received one of an advance copy of BTW Books series, Borrowed Body & Other Poems from Joko Pinurbo himself, when we met at the opening ceremony of The 2015 Salihara International Literary Biennale, last Saturday (03/10/2015), in Jakarta. 



“BTW” stands for “by the way” (as in “by the way, have you heard about such and such an author?”), and the titles in this series will feature “short chapbooks translations”, work by many talented Indonesian writers.



This series of these mini-books,–a trilingual edition in English, German, and Indonesian, with each one around 100 pages in length–, will be aimed at publishers, editors, critics, and other persons of influence in the publishing industry. And established specifically to make certain that Indonesia would have enough high-quality writers available to participate in this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair.



For the first stage, there’s a long list of 25 authors whose work Lontar’s editorial board chose to translate and publish under this new imprint, represents a variety range of literary genres and writing styles. They are–in alphabetical order–Abidah El-Khalieqy, Acep Zamzam Noor, AS Laksana, Avianti Armand, Azhari Aiyub, Ben Sohib, Clara Ng, Cok Sawitri, Gunawan Maryanto, Hanna Fransisca, Hasif Amini, Iksaka Banu, Intan Paramaditha, Joko Pinurbo, Joned Suryatmoko, Linda Christanty, Mona Sylviana, Nirwan Arsuka, Nirwan Dewanto, Nukila Amal, Taufik Ikram Jamil, Warih Wisatsana, Yusi Avianto Pareanom, Zeffry Alkatiri, and Zen Hae.



“Because of the abundance of talented Indonesian authors, the selection of the first 25 authors was difficult to make, but Lontar’s hope is that if the series proves successful in achieving its goal, the Foundation will then be able to produce translations by another 25 authors and then another 25 authors and so on in the years to come.”, John H McGlynn said it clearly in his Publisher’s Note for this series.



We don’t expect nothing but success, since we’re likely driven by the same passion: foster appreciation of Indonesian literature anywhere in the world, through the medium of English.