Jakarta Post / What Media Says
Feb 11, 2025
Antara / What Media Says
Feb 10, 2025
Frontline / All Things Books
Feb 08, 2025
RRI / What Media Says
Feb 06, 2025
Chairil Anwar
Writer
A poet and member of the “1945 Generation” of writers. He is estimated to have written 96 works, including 70 individual poems.
Anwar was born and raised in Medan, North Sumatra, before moving to Batavia with his mother in 1940, where he began to enter the local literary circles. After publishing his first poem in 1942, Anwar continued to write. However, his poems were at times censored by the Japanese, then occupying Indonesia. Living rebelliously, Anwar wrote extensively, often about death. He died in Jakarta of an unknown illness.
His work dealt with various themes, including death, individualism, and existentialism, and were often multi-interpretable. Drawing influence from foreign poets, Anwar used everyday language and new syntax to write his poetry, which has been noted as aiding the development of the Indonesian language. His poems were often constructed irregularly, but with individual patterns.1
Book(s)

Indonesian Writing in Translation
Anthology
212 page(s), Equinox Publishing
In the Headlines

VOI English / What Media Says
Apr 30, 2023

VOI English / What Media Says
Apr 28, 2023

Columbia Journal / Translations
Apr 13, 2021

Jakarta Globe / What Media Says
May 09, 2018

Indonesia Tatler / As Seen On
Nov 15, 2017

Jakarta Post / What Media Says
Aug 16, 2016
At a Glance
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