Shirl Wayne Marshall (Affirm Press, available now) Shirl is our First Book Club pick for March—stay tuned to the KYD website and Podcast throughout the month! Shirl is a wild ride through Australiana. A mermaid appears on a fishing trip; lonely men receive mail-order brides from recently … [Read more...]
Twisted Stories
March 11, 2020 by
Ten years ago, I read Eka Kurniawan’s “The Otter Amulet” (Jimat Sero), a story about a former bully victim who uses an amulet to protect himself from harm, an outsider trying to fit in. It was written for a horror story anthology, a tribute to Indonesia’s most prolific horror writer Abdullah … [Read more...]
Let’s talk about sex: ‘C*bul’ puts spotlight on porn
March 11, 2020 by
Sex and pornography have been controversial topics in Indonesia for years and are often taboo simply because discussing them will always intersect with traditions, norms, religious beliefs and the law. Hendri Yulius has no such qualms. The young Indonesian writer and lecturer of gender and … [Read more...]
Rendang by Will Harris — poems that brim with soul and playfulness
March 9, 2020 by
Moving portraits of everyday grace in an impressive debut collection. One of the standout scenes in Rendang rises from a second-hand memory in the daydream of a bored poet in a dressing room. A couple see a woman on the street dancing, hood over head, can of Diet Coke in hand: “The wind blew/and … [Read more...]
Clarissa Goenawan pens tale of teenage misfits’ gothic soul-searching
March 8, 2020 by
Mainstream stories about popular teenagers can be a little bit boring sometimes, since their lives are kind of predictable and go smoothly most of the time. What is not so predictable is the second novel of Indonesian-born Singaporean author Clarissa Goenawan, The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida, … [Read more...]
