Ismail Marahimin

He began his career as a teacher of English. In 1969 he left teaching to continue his education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, obtaining his masters degree in 1971, after graduating with a degree in English from the national teachers’ college (IKIP) in Medan in 1964.

Ismail dedicated most of his career to teaching as a lecturer in English language and literature at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. However, he was also a frequent contributor to Kompas daily newspaper and to Tempo magazine. He was also editor for a time for the magazines Indonesia, Your Destination, and Eksekutif.

Ismail Marahimin’s only novel, Dan Perang Pun Usai (And the War is Over) was published in 1977, and was named best novel of the year in the annual Jakarta Arts Council Novel Competition. Further acclaim came in 1984 when the novel was named recipient of the Pegasus Prize for Literature, a literary award established by the Mobil Corporation (now Exxon Mobil). The prize was presented to Ismail by Subagio Sastrowardoyo, a well-known Indonesian author, in New York. The novel,described as a tensely drawn story, documents the final days of World War II, and the impact of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia on the people of a small village in Sumatra.¹

1. Wikipedia ↩