This essay is based on a Master’s lecture delivered at the Conrad Award Gala, Conrad Festival, October 29, 2023. Gloria Anzaldúa, a queer Mexican American author with indigenous heritage, tells us about why she writes: “I write to record what others erase when I speak, to rewrite the stories … [Read more...]
Writings
The Caretaker of Tears
Lia Tjokro offers a restrained and emotionally exacting meditation on grief and care. The story centers on labor that is invisible yet essential—emotional maintenance performed without recognition or relief. Silence, repetition, and ritual structure the narrative, allowing sorrow to surface … [Read more...]
The Desolate Order of the Head in the Water
A child walks into a half-abandoned city with half-crumbling skyscrapers and gardens half-turned into deserts. The child, a twelve-year-old boy in sturdy hiking boots and a hydration pack, with tears pooling in his eyes and blisters on his feet, arrives in the city near midnight, and because of that … [Read more...]
The Last Supper
Lia Tjokro shares a poignant tale featuring love and loss, making a reader go through a roller-coaster of emotions. It was a night when the stars hid behind the bulbous stormclouds and the nocturnal insects were silent. The eerie shadow and protruding branches of the frangipani trees that lined … [Read more...]
The Long March
Joko makes his way through a massive crowd of students out on the yard of the high-walled campus on Jalan Ahmad Yani. The sun is pale against the metallic sky and the city is brimming with heat and exhaust fumes. It is not yet eight in the morning. He finds Mara somewhere at the back of the crowd, … [Read more...]