Mona Sylviana

Mona Sylviana was born in 1972 in Bandung, West Java. After graduating from the Faculty of Communications at the University of Pajajaran she spent a considerable time at the Arts, Literature, Theatre and Film Forum on the campus there. She was also able to link with the Bandung Theatre Study Club and is now active with the Nalar Theatre. Since 2000 she has been involved with the founding and the activities of the Jatinangor Nalar Institute.

Mona’s short stories have been printed in the national mass media and have been included in several anthologies with other writers. Her short story anthology, Wajah Terakhir [The Last Face], was published in 2011. Mona’s stories have distinctive features besides many scenes that are unapologetically beyond the pale. Dirt, ugliness, and darkness, both physical and in the minds of her characters, appear without any sugar coating. In Mona’s stories the world is not a safe place for women, but they don’t always respond to situations as objects or victims: they often take positions as “abjects” who wage confrontation against what is regarded as the accepted order.