Reviewed by BROOK EMERY What are my credentials, or lack thereof, to review these two anthologies of women’s poetry? Despite an androgynous first name, I am a sliced-white-bread, baby-boomer male. Husband not wife. Father not mother. I am also … [Read more...]
The Book of Jakarta – Edited by Maesy Ang & Teddy W. Kusuma
May 19, 2021 by
Jakarta, the city I used to call home for over a decade, is now out of reach for me. I have struggled with homesickness ever since I – voluntarily – relocated to Berlin in March 2018, but this feeling was amplified over the last year: since the pandemic took hold of our lives, getting on an airplane … [Read more...]
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
May 19, 2021 by
What is it about? Chinese-Indonesian, US-based Meddelin Chan finds herself in an impossible situation: after she accidentally kills her blind date in self-defense, her mother brings in reinforcements to help get rid of the body: her three sisters, Meddie’s aunties. But how can they cover up a … [Read more...]
Sergius Mencari Bacchus
May 10, 2021 by
Some writings can truly have devastating effects on the reader, and Sergius Mencari Bacchus (officially translated into English as Sergius Seeks Bacchus by Tiffany Tsao) is one of those. Every word, every line, every verse Norman Erikson Pasaribu penned down on this poetry collection not only sound, … [Read more...]
In Suspicion of Beauty: On Eka Kurniawan
March 13, 2021 by
When the English-language editions of Eka Kurniawan’s Beauty is a Wound and Man Tiger were published last year, they were greeted with great critical acclaim. Beauty is a Wound made it into the New York Times’ annual list of the top 100 notable books for 2015. As a scholar and translator of modern … [Read more...]
