Intan Paramaditha, translated by Stephen J. Epstein Tiffany Tsao
Published in Literary Hub, Oct 26, 2026
First published in Night of a Thousand Hells
Europa Editions
The following is from Intan Paramaditha's Night of a Thousand Hells. Paramaditha is an Indonesian author and a Harvard Radcliffe Fellow. Her story collection Apple and Knife is part of the Vintage Classics Weird Girls series, and her novel The Wandering was longlisted for the Stella Prize and received the English PEN Translates Award. She holds a Ph.D. from New York University and teaches at Macquarie University, Sydney. She is co-founder of the feminist collective Sekolah Pemikiran Perempuan.
Stephen Epstein serves as both the Director of the Asian Studies Institute and a member of the Classics Programme at the Victoria University of Wellington in Wellington, New Zealand. Among his latest publications are articles on the ancient Greek novel, translations of Korean and Indonesian fiction, including Intan Paramaditha’s Apple and Knife, and an analysis of contemporary short stories in North Korea.
Tiffany Tsao is a writer and literary translator. She has translated five books from Indonesian into English. For her translation of Budi Darma’s People from Bloomington, she was awarded the 2023 PEN Translation Prize and the 2023 NSW Premier’s Translation Prize. Her translation of Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Happy Stories, Mostly was longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize and awarded the 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses..
Stephen Epstein serves as both the Director of the Asian Studies Institute and a member of the Classics Programme at the Victoria University of Wellington in Wellington, New Zealand. Among his latest publications are articles on the ancient Greek novel, translations of Korean and Indonesian fiction, including Intan Paramaditha’s Apple and Knife, and an analysis of contemporary short stories in North Korea.
Tiffany Tsao is a writer and literary translator. She has translated five books from Indonesian into English. For her translation of Budi Darma’s People from Bloomington, she was awarded the 2023 PEN Translation Prize and the 2023 NSW Premier’s Translation Prize. Her translation of Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Happy Stories, Mostly was longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize and awarded the 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses..
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