In this article People from Bloomington Budi Darma Tiffany Tsao
By Ted C. Fishman, originally published in Newcity Lit
Jul 16, 2026
Read the full article here.
By Ted C. Fishman, originally published in Newcity Lit
Jul 16, 2026
The renowned Indonesian writer is breaking through thanks to new English-language versions of his Bloomington, Indiana-set books translated by Tiffany Tsao.
Indonesian novels? Short-story collections? Memoirs? Can you name any? No, this isn’t an internet come-on, like clickbait that claims that “If you know the meaning of these words you’re in the top one percent.” Even the top 0.001 percent could not name any. There are French (“Musketeers”), Italian (“Pinocchio”), Spanish (“Quixote”) and even Swedish (“Dragon Tattoo”) books nearly every reading American knows. But from Indonesia, the world’s fourth most-populous country? Come on, think. Nothing, right? Novelist and literary translator Tiffany Tsao, who was raised in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, got a Ph.D. in English from UC Berkeley and lives today in Australia, may change that. Her English translations of Indonesian fiction are breaking through. Her latest is a haunting rendition of “Olenka” by the late Budi Darma.
Indonesian novels? Short-story collections? Memoirs? Can you name any? No, this isn’t an internet come-on, like clickbait that claims that “If you know the meaning of these words you’re in the top one percent.” Even the top 0.001 percent could not name any. There are French (“Musketeers”), Italian (“Pinocchio”), Spanish (“Quixote”) and even Swedish (“Dragon Tattoo”) books nearly every reading American knows. But from Indonesia, the world’s fourth most-populous country? Come on, think. Nothing, right? Novelist and literary translator Tiffany Tsao, who was raised in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, got a Ph.D. in English from UC Berkeley and lives today in Australia, may change that. Her English translations of Indonesian fiction are breaking through. Her latest is a haunting rendition of “Olenka” by the late Budi Darma.
Read the full article here.
BD / IDWRITERS
