Seno Gumira Ajidarma

An author of short stories, essays, and movie scripts. He is also known as a journalist, photographer and lecturer. He won the 1997 S.E.A. Write Award (Southeast Asian Writers Award). Some of his well-known short stories are Manusia Kamar (1988), Penembak Misterius (1993), Saksi Mata (1994), Dilarang Menyanyi di Kamar Mandi (1995), Sebuah Pertanyaan untuk Cinta (1996) and Iblis Tidak Pernah Mati (1999).

Seno has been writing fiction since the age of 16 and began working as a journalist when he was 19. He has published more than 30 books since the 1980s when he emerged as a prominent short story writer in the genre known as sastra koran (newspaper literature).

Seno’s short stories often both document everyday life and criticize contemporary social, cultural and political conditions. He has been a consistent advocate of free speech and freedom of publication, writing about sensitive issues, including military violence in East Timor in the stories of Eyewitness and in his 1996 novel, Jazz, Parfum dan Insiden (Jazz, Perfume and an Incident). Other subject matter has included the so-called “mysterious killings” in East Java in the early 1980s, and instability in Aceh.

Seno’s credo is “When journalism is silenced, literature must speak. Because while journalism speaks with facts, literature speaks with truth.”

His writing styles are varied, from reportage and realism to fantasy. When asked in 2001 whether he is a journalist, a short story writer, a poet or a political commentator, and about whether his work is surrealism, magic realism, fantasy or postmodern journalism, he said simply, ‘Call it whatever you want. It’s what I do.’ In 2014, he launched a blog called PanaJournal that featured human interest stories along with various journalists and communication professionals.¹

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