Let me read you a part of writing from Waking up for The First Time by Lala Bohang where you can relate (or not) to your mood. It’s absurd how things around me become a mere repetition without process that I can quietly observe. Repetitiveness becomes a default feeling, an emotion, and sometimes, … [Read more...]

The stories in Happy Stories, Mostly, which is forthcoming from Feminist Press this June, are not happy—they do not even pretend to be happy. No, most of these stories are tragic—within these pages, a sister betrays her brother over a menial job, a mother mourns her dead son, who has killed himself … [Read more...]

This is the translated version of my original Indonesian review for this book. Man Tiger is one of the best books I have ever read and the reason why I’m currently am obsessed with Indonesian literature. I translated my original review with the hopes that anyone who reads it will be interested in … [Read more...]

'This book is not easy to pigeonhole in terms of its genre. It is partly social history, partly a biography of a great writer, partly an intellectual adventure story.' The following is a review of “Indonesia Out of Exile: How Pramoedya’s Buru Quartet Killed a Dictatorship” by Max Lane, Penguin … [Read more...]

What would it mean to be happy? It’s a question both essential and existential, one that seems so daunting, it’s best avoided. But queer Indonesian poet Norman Erikson Pasaribu has no intention of shying away from the messy nature of happiness—including its more melancholic aspects. The title of … [Read more...]