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...]
Lontar to globally publish selected Indonesian poems, short stories
May 11, 2017 by
The Jakarta-based Lontar Foundation plans to publish anthologies of translated Indonesian poems and short stories from the past century in a bid to promote the country’s literature to the world. Lontar, a small outfit that has previously translated works by local writers for readers across the … [Read more...]
Crossing Bloodlines
May 6, 2017 by
The poems in this collection trace the overlapping cycles of the human journey from birth to death across the space/time habitat we measure in footfalls and poetic metre. Travelled in the company of family and community, our journeys enact the species’ heritage and legacy of kinship and violence – … [Read more...]
