At first glance, the novel Kura-kura Berjanggut (The Bearded Turtle), set in Aceh's past, may look intimidating, being almost one thousand pages in length. But when you turn to the first page and start reading, the story will absorb you, and without realizing it you will have finished the first … [Read more...]

We welcome 2018 by bringing a little dismay and anxiety. This year, the election of the regional head will be held in numerous areas, followed by the presidential election in the following year. Hey! It gonna be the two year-marathon that drains your energy. Not even a month we already smell the … [Read more...]

Indonesian writer Eliza Vitri Handayani's short works have appeared in the Griffith Review, Asia Literary Review, Exchanges Journal, Magdalene, Jakarta Post, Koran Tempo, Words Without Borders, Inside Indonesia, and Index on Censorship. In 2012 she launched InterSastra, an initiative to improve … [Read more...]

Around the time half a million ­Indonesian Muslims packed Jakarta’s national monument park in late 2016 to pray for the blasphemy conviction of the city’s Christian governor, Feby Indirani decided to test reaction to her new collection of religious parodies by publishing one online. It’s fair to … [Read more...]

For this audacious author, fiction gives her room to tell more sensitive stories. Mary is pregnant without ever having intercourse with a man. Without being married. Such a miracle happened when Jesus was born fatherless. Nowadays, who would believe that Mary was impregnated without having … [Read more...]