Translating Mona Sylviana’s story collection, “A Tale of Redemption and Other Stories,” has been something of a change of pace for me. Indonesian literature is often steeped in the exotic cultures, mythologies, and languages of the many ethnic groups of Indonesia. Hence it can be difficult at times … [Read more...]
“These Cycles Are Repeating Themselves”: Lara Norgaard on Indonesian History and Translating Political Fiction
July 2, 2026 by
Felix Nesi’s People from Oetimu could be the funniest book about colonial terror ever written. Opening with the World Cup in the late nineties only to spiral back to decades of violence in Timor, the book is a treatise on a whole menu of colonialisms (Portuguese! Japanese! Indonesian!), yet its … [Read more...]
NT Writers Festival launches story of Timorese asylum seekers who took fishing boat to Australia
June 24, 2026 by
Jose da Costa was born "in the middle of a war". It was 1976, one year after Indonesia's invasion of the Portuguese territory then known as East Timor. "My family ran to the bush to hide," he said. "I was born in the bush." Over the 24 years that followed, more than 100,000 Timorese … [Read more...]
From Lucky Country to Fearful Land
June 22, 2026 by
The Tasi Diak (Good Sea) was spotted from the air only after a tip-off from Aussie and Timorese activists plotting its progress. Although the boat had no communications equipment, its Darwin-based support crew knew what was happening before the Coastguard pulled alongside the small … [Read more...]
A Devilishly Fun (and Serious) Q&A with Phoning Faust Author Sophie Mutiara Nova
June 18, 2026 by
Queer horror has long used monsters, ghosts, and demons to explore questions of identity, belonging, and survival. In Phoning Faust, filmmaker and writer Sophie Mutiara Nova brings those themes into the digital age, following a lonely young woman whose late-night call to the Devil spirals into a … [Read more...]
