This essay was originally published in the Full Stop Quarterly “Literary Dis(-)appearances in (Post)colonial Cities,” edited by Michelle Chan Schmidt. Subscribe at our Patreon page to get access to this and future issues, also available for purchase here. The novel opens on the night of the 1998 … [Read more...]
Behind
Towards a Postcolonial Politics of Relatability: Translating People from Oetimu by Felix Nesi
December 29, 2025 by
‘The sound to my voice’: Norman Erikson Pasaribu on translator Tiffany Tsao
May 28, 2022 by
Sergius Seeks Bacchus author Norman Erikson Pasaribu is on a mission to bring translator Tiffany Tsao to London. Norman was among 12 writers selected to attend the 2019 London Book Fair, to be held at Olympia on March 12 to 14, to promote Indonesian books abroad. Indonesia was named the Market Focus … [Read more...]
Grim romance: Eka Kurniawan on ill-fated characters and writing what he knows
August 13, 2021 by
Having originally been written in Indonesian, Sumur was first published in September of 2020 in English as The Well, as a part of the Penguin Books’ anthology Tales of Two Planets. Its Indonesian version has now been released in Indonesia, via publisher PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama. The novella is … [Read more...]
Journalist turns tales of undercover reporting, love in Papua into novel
June 12, 2018 by
A Dutch freelance journalist, Rohan (a pen name), had been interested in the political turmoil in Papua for years. In 2015, his application for a journalistic visa was denied. The 32-year-old then decided to embark on an undercover reporting assignment in the country’s easternmost province. For … [Read more...]
Leader of the flak
March 5, 2018 by
NEARLY EIGHT YEARS since Saman was published in Indonesia, taking the book world there by storm, Ayu Utami has seen immense changes in her life. Once an unknown journalist, her debut novel has sold more than 150,000 copies and been reprinted 34 times in its original language. Saman is now a cause … [Read more...]