Wiwien Wintarto

WW as he usually called by his colleagues, is a writer-by-learning. At his early chilhood, he learned how to write comic strip and draw carricatures from his father, Masdi, who famous with his comic strip “Pak Bei” in Suara Merdeka Daily Newspaper in Semarang, Central Java, in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Life took another turn when at 14 years of age, WW obtained membership in Perpustakaan Keliling, or mobile library, in 1985. Fascinated by the works by Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie, and Arswendo Atmowiloto, he decided to become a novelist without having any writing skills at all. He then learned to write short stories and novels from absolutely nothing. Ten years later, when he was in college, he completed his self-teaching method in writing by published a short story in Cempaka Minggu Ini family tabloid in Semarang, titled “Kembali Sesaat”. During the 1990’s and early 2000’s, he worked as freelance writer in Suara Merdeka Media Group, wrote articles about music, movies, TV, sport, entertainment, and literature. He published his first novel in 2005, titlet “Kok jadi Gini?”, which is published by PT Elex Media Komputindo, Jakarta. Up until 2007, he mainly worked in teen romance novels genre, and then switched to young adult romance genre by published “Say No to Love” from PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, Jakarta. So far, he already published 25 books. His latest work is “Say No to Me”, published in August 2017, which is the sequel of his “Say No to Love” novel 10 years earlier. Although mainly worked in the teen and young adult genre, his novels’ theme ranged from romantic comedy, sports drama (“Grasshopper”, 2010), mystery-horror (“www.gombel.com”, 2011), to romance-thriller (“The Supper Club”, 2014) and adult romance (“Remember December”, 2016). Aside from publishing novels, he also published short stories anthologies, nonfiction books, and celebrities’ profile books. With pen name Hangguk Nim, he wrote pictorial books about Super Junior and SNSD; and with pen name Nina Martin, he publish profile book about Katy Perry. Both released in 2012.