Some (or most) people might think poetry is some kind of melodramatic literary product, with flowery, figurative language not everyone understand. And there might not be many people who would think that poetry can also be funny, comic even, triggering laughter of its readers. Buku Latihan Tidur by … [Read more...]

Kumpulan Budak Setan is some kind of a tribute to Indonesian horror fiction writer Abdullah Harahap. The three renowned contributing authors—Eka Kurniawan, Intan Paramaditha and Ugoran Prasad—have recreated and re-represented Harahap’s famous narrative in their own styles and with their own ideas. … [Read more...]

Child of all Nations  (Anak Semua Bangsa) is the second in the Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Buru Quartet, so called because it was conceived on the island of Buru— where he was imprisoned without trial in 1965 when the military dictatorship of President Suharto cracked down on anyone suspected of … [Read more...]

JENNIFER Lindsay has been translating Goenawan Mohamad’s columns since 1992. She has captured Goenawan’s Indonesian prose with striking clarity. Goenawan, of course, was editor of Tempo, the Indonesian weekly opinion periodical that he founded in 1971. And for the journalist, activist, editor, … [Read more...]

Counterculture journalist Raka Ibrahim’s debut novel, Bagaimana Tuhan Menciptakan Cahaya (How God Created Light), is a collection of short stories inspired by popular Middle Eastern folktale collection One Thousand and One Nights. In his debut novel, Raka Ibrahim utilizes the premise of two … [Read more...]