INDONESIA FOCUS: Q+A Laksmi Pamuntjak

Indonesia is the country of focus at the London Book Fair this year and recently at Frankfurt - to what extent do you think Indonesian literature is finally having it's moment in the spotlight? I cannot say for certain what these one-off ‘spotlights’ on Indonesian literature would mean for Indonesian literature in the long term. But it is an encouraging sign; the relatively short three-and-a-half-year gap between Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) 2015 and London Book Fair (LBF) 2019 means we are still—or possibly even more—interesting to the publishing industry. And while I wish more Indonesian writers are being translated into English—and translated well—some of us are starting to break through internationally. It always takes one or two to pave the way. For me personally, FBF was a game changer in many ways. Before that we didn’t have the publishing infrastructure necessary with which to promote our literature abroad. We didn’t have literary agents – in fact I only knew of one, and he used to work for my Indonesian publisher Gramedia. It was he who took a chance on the English version of my first novel, Amba/The Question of Red, and brought it to Frankfurt Book Fair in 2013, where the novel was picked up by Ullstein Verlag and published in Germany in 2015, ahead of the FBF.  So I was very fortunate. A few months later, I landed a literary agent in New York, through whom I managed to sell world rights to other European markets. Later this year, I signed up with another literary... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2019-02-08 10:06:53 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "INDONESIA FOCUS: Q+A Laksmi Pamuntjak"


Awards: London Book Fair Names International Excellence Shortlists

Seventeen nations are represented in eight categories, with Greece making its debut in International Excellence Awards competition. The post Awards: London Book Fair Names International Excellence Shortlists appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-03-04 12:29:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Exclusive cover reveal: Laura Warrell’s Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm.

Lit Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Laura Warrell’s debut novel Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm, which will be published by Pantheon in fall 2022. Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm follows Circus Palmer, a forty-year-old Boston-based trumpet player and old-school ladies’ man, who lives for his music... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-03-03 15:00:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Omar Sakr's 'epic, stunningly dirty' debut novel challenges macho heterosexual myths of Arab-Australian culture

The lives of queer Arab-Australian boys and men are vividly inhabited in award-winning poet Omar Sakr’s darkly comic debut novel, set in Western Sydney. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2022-02-28 19:12:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Is Adaptation a Feminine Act? On the Women Writers Who Worked on Alfred Hitchcock Presents

As women writers adapted to a changing post-WWII job market, so too did they adapt in their work, translating their skills into writing suspense for television and turning short stories into screenplays. In her essay on adaptation and “gendered discourses,” Shelley Cobb writes that “feminist... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-28 09:50:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Bringing Light to the Situation of Kurdish Women: Chinur Sa’idi’s Hobbies of Mr. Like-a-Man, 
by Zakarya Bezdoode

Book Reviews Statue of renowned Kurdish historian, author, and poet Mastoureh Ardalan (1805–1848) in Erbil / Photo by Levi Meir Clancy / Unsplash Even though they appear to have a lot to say about the historical, political, cultural, and literary... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-23 21:05:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this


10 of the Best Fantasy Short Stories Everyone Should Read

As a literary genre, fantasy is one of the oldest and most recent. Although modern fantasy only began to be recognised as a distinct genre in the late twentieth century, thanks largely to the popularity of J. R. R. Tolkien and his imitators, its roots can be traced back millennia. […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2022-02-23 15:00:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Summary and Analysis of Langston Hughes’ ‘Red-Headed Baby’

Although he is probably better known as a poet, Langston Hughes (1902-67), a leading writer of the Harlem Renaissance, also wrote some of the finest short stories of the early twentieth century, and ‘Red-Headed Baby’ is one of his best. ‘Red-Headed Baby’ was published in Hughes’ 1934 collection... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2022-02-22 15:00:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Bologna and London Book Fair Highlight Authors Roberts and O’Farrell

Michèle Roberts in Italy and Maggie O'Farrell in England: Bologna and London announce brand-name author participation. The post Bologna and London Book Fair Highlight Authors Roberts and O’Farrell appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-02-17 07:23:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Announcing The Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award shortlist

Photo credit: Nigel DaviesSunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award marks the 30th anniversary with one of it's most decorated shortlists to date:• Irish novelist Megan Nolan for her darkly funny debut novel Acts of Desperation;• US-based writer Anna Beecher for her novel... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2022-02-16 14:40:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Toronto author's bestselling novel The Maid started as an idea on a napkin

Canadian author Nita Prose's debut novel The Maid became a New York Times and Canadian bestseller just a few weeks after its release on January 4.  Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2022-02-16 09:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Books To Screen Edition: Literary Agents’ and Rights Directors’ Film Deals

Publishers and literary agents report their books to film deals, and the year ahead already is a standout for film and television adaptations. The post Books To Screen Edition: Literary Agents’ and Rights Directors’ Film Deals appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-02-11 15:09:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Cards on the Table: Three Contemporary Italian Women Writers Open the Doors of Their Workshops

Interviews The creative writing of the twenty-first century will be remembered for having sanctioned the passage of text from paper to digital support. But is it really true that the author’s cards have disappeared? And how do contemporary authors write... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-08 20:43:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: A debut novel of love and privilege that's made for TV

Coco Mellors' 'Cleopatra and Frankenstein' evokes a rich universe in multiple senses, but it feels engineered for a Netflix adaptation. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-02-04 14:00:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this


On The Lost Daughter, Vladimir, and What Happens When Women Have Had Enough

Early in Julia May Jonas’s searing debut novel Vladimir, the unnamed narrator, an “oldish white woman in her late fifties (the identity I am burdened with publicly presenting, to my general embarrassment)” finds herself in the last place anyone wants to be—a faculty meeting of a small New... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-02 09:50:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Emancipatory Queerness in the Work of Roberto Bolaño, by Erika Almenara

Book Reviews   Antoine-François-Jean Claudet, [Multiple Exposures of the Moon] (1846–52), daguerreotype, 2019.47, ​​​​​Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel / Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Queer... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-01 20:37:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: The predator's wife: A dark debut novel with a #MeToo gender twist

Julia May Jonas' "Vladimir" is a thrilling "Lolita" update in which the deliciously wicked narrator is not the male abuser but his wife. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-02-01 14:00:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this


‘The Violin Conspiracy’ Is a Musical Thriller With Some Unexpected Notes

Brendan Slocumb’s debut novel is a musical bildungsroman cleverly contained within a literary thriller. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-02-01 10:00:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this


7 Novels About Family Curses

I have always held a keen interest toward the processes of myth formation and how beliefs about family identity are handed down through generations. My debut novel Defenestrate tells the story of a family in the midst of reckoning with superstition and inheritance, the long-held beliefs that can... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Frankfurter Buchmesse: Upgraded Cancellation Terms for 2022

With early bird pricing ending January 31, exhibitors and literary agents now can make cost-free cancellations, if need be, until May 31. The post Frankfurter Buchmesse: Upgraded Cancellation Terms for 2022 appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-01-27 16:35:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Genderqueer Short Stories About the Ways We Mythologize Our Identities

A nonbinary teenager on their way home from an eating -disorder treatment center who tries to convince a stranger she is not a vampire, an aspiring fashion designer/dry-cleaning worker who develops an obsession with a customer, a community of people with Hansen’s disease that welcome and attempt... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-27 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this