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Nirwan Dewanto

Writer



Nirwan Dewanto is a poet, essayist, editor, and arts curator who once wrote, in a note on his poetic quest, “Should a blind swimmer decide whether he is to stop in the middle of the sea or to swim back to the shore? But poetry doesn’t try to resolve the matter. It stops short of that so that emptiness as well as meaning echo between the poet’s blindness and his seeing.”

 

His publications include Jantung Lebah Ratu (The Queen Bee’s Heart; Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2008) and Buli-Buli Lima Kaki (The Five-Footed Jug; Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2010), both of which received the Kusala Sastra Khatulistiwa literary prize for poetry; collected prose poems Buku Merah (The Red Book; Penerbit Oak, 2017) and Buku Jingga (The Orange Book; Penerbit Oak, 2018); and collected essays Senjakala Kebudayaan (Culture’s Twilight; Penerbit Oak, 2015), Satu Setengah Mata-Mata (One and a Half Eyes; Penerbit Oak, 2016), and Kaki Kata (Footed Words; Teroka Press, 2020). Nirwan Dewanto’s most recent publication, Dua Marga (Two Kin; Teroka Press, 2022), which includes the three poems featured in this issue, was named best poetry book of the year in 2022 by Tempo magazine. His poetry in English translation by John H. McGlynn is collected in Museum of Pure Desire (Lontar, 2017).1


  1. Asymptote Journal 

Book(s)


In the Headlines


Three Poems

Asymptote / Translations
Jul 01, 2023

Interiors and Interpretations: New Writing from Indonesia

Words Without Borders / As Seen On
Mar 05, 2019

Geology

Words Without Borders / Translations
Mar 05, 2019

Nirwan Dewanto straddling three worlds

Jakarta Post / What Media Says
Oct 09, 2017

Short stories, poems getting scarce in printed media

Jakarta Post / As Seen On
May 08, 2016

World meet Indonesian literature at the Buchmesse

Il manifesto / As Seen On
Oct 15, 2015

IDWRITERS

Indonesia Expat / As Seen On
Dec 01, 2014

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