In its inaugural year, Wasafiri was joined by five Editors at Large based in Southeast Asia and Aotearoa New Zealand. As part of our Wasafiri at Large series, each Editor at Large has shed a valuable light on their local literary scene. Sebastian Partogi, our former Editor at Large – based in … [Read more...]

“Sisterhood is a powerful force, but we need solidarity beyond sisterhood to realize a more equal society.” This year is the fifteenth anniversary of the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) and it was my best experience at the festival so far. I was there to talk about House of the … [Read more...]

Clara Ng’s “Meteors” is a deceptively simple tale of a sweet relationship between an alien and an earthling. Set in a distant galaxy, it plays with the dimensions of space and time. However, reading it in Indonesian likely provides a different experience than reading its English translation. This … [Read more...]

In October 2015, Indonesia made its appearance as the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair—the first country from Southeast Asia to be so honored.  Words Without Borders celebrated with our August 2015 issue, which offered work by nine poets and fiction writers. Now, three and half years later, … [Read more...]

When Inside Indonesia was launched in November 1983, the events of 1965/66 were still fresh in the Indonesian nation’s collective memory. The official interpretation of those events – that the Army had foiled an attempted coup by the Indonesian communist party (PKI) and its supporters, incarcerating … [Read more...]