The Makassar International Writers Festival (MIWF) is set to roll for a third time from June 25 to 29 at Fort Rotterdam in Makassar, South Sulawesi. The festival, dubbed the largest literary festival in eastern Indonesia, boasts a total of 50 writers and performers in a total of 40 free events to … [Read more...]
A Look Into Makassar’s Literary Culture
May 13, 2017 by
Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, has always been known for its brave seafarers and rich traditional culture. The region also prides itself for its sacred epic creation myth “La Galigo,” which is known as the longest literary work in the world. Only parts of the epic, which was originally … [Read more...]
New aromas
May 12, 2017 by
In the early days of the reformasi period, Indonesia saw a boom in literature by young female authors, tackling topics that had been deemed taboo under the New Order regime. Labelled by supporters and critics alike as sastra wangi (literally ‘fragrant literature’), these narratives often contained … [Read more...]
Characterisation and unlikeable characters
May 12, 2017 by
Part 2 of the workshop from Christos Tsiolkas and Norman Erikson Pasaribu focussed on characterisation, where characters come from, how they’re developed, and the work they do for the story. Tsiolkas says that he starts with a question or issue, then thinks of characters that he can use to tell … [Read more...]
Language and Imagery
May 12, 2017 by
The setting for the first workshop is the University of the Philippines in Diliman. There’s a hushed scholarly atmosphere, the audience mostly made up of English department students and academics. The constant thrum of a large air conditioner is regularly broken by the click of an SLR … [Read more...]