Books Literature

Teacher and Friend

A younger writer remembers Pramoedya’s influence on his own life and work.

He wept for Indonesia

Pramoedya the writer was also an historian who loved his country.

Ubud writers festival

New Indonesian writers receive international exposure.

This short story, written by an ex-political prisoner, has never been published in its original Indonesian version. We cannot disclose the author's real name or the various pseudonyms under which she has been publishing since her release. A member ofGerwani, a women's organisation with alleged connections with the Indonesian Communist Party, banned since the so-called coup of September 1965, the author seems to have started writing fiction only after her detention. The experience colours much of her writing. Most of her short stories are about the down and out, the women whom poverty has driven to theft, begging and prostitution, the 'criminals' (or were they the victims?) with whom the author shared her prison cells.