January 2009: Tropical Currents: Writing by Indonesian Women

Image: Jonathan McIntosh

Guest Editor


Also in this Issue

Fiction by Horacio Castellanos Moya

Snatch

I began frequenting the Café Imperial on the same day that I moved into the apartment of my very dear friend Hernando Salcido, a spacious and well-furnished apartment on Jesús y María…

Translated from Spanish by Samantha Schnee

Poetry by Gabriel Magaña Merlo

Bare Nothing

I   II   III   gush of penumbra anchored in the calm   untouched beyond. soon to unearth —poem written on the page— the graveyard of words past the other side of spring…

Translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine

Book Reviews

Rubem Fonseca’s “The Taker and Other Stories”

Reviewed by Dan Bevacqua

In Notes from Underground, Dostoevsky writes, "Every man has reminiscences which he would not tell to everyone, but only to his friends. He has other matters in his mind which he would not reveal even…...

Alaa Al Aswany’s “Chicago”

Reviewed by Stefanie Sobelle

Since the publication of his successful debut The Yacoubian Building (2004), Alaa Al Aswany has become one of Egypt's most celebrated writers, a vocal opponent to the corruption and nepotism that have…...

Fiction by Cok Sawitri

Womb

My name is Nagari. Thirty years of age. There is no need to explain; I understand. . . . That evening, after my bath, my hair still wet, I heard a pounding on the door of my rented room. Three men had…

Translated from Indonesian by John H. McGlynn

Poetry by Dorothea Rosa Herliany

Mother’s Letter

I write on the weary folds of my face telling my disappointment to the increasingly dry river which circles around the ribs of our city. like a vein allowing the blood to flow lazily to the corners of…

Translated from Indonesian by Harry Aveling

Fiction by Etik Juwita

Maybe Not Yem

"Can you believe it? One of my friends threw her boss's baby into a washing machine, just before going back to her village," the woman beside me said in a flat voice. I turned my gaze to the darkness…

Translated from Indonesian by Andy Fuller

Fiction by Lily Yulianti Farid

The Kitchen

Ruth loved flour. Mother loved the kitchen. And I loved Ruth and Mother. I grew up at the large kitchen table, watching Ruth sift flour and mix various kinds of dough. I learned to walk while holding on…

Translated from Indonesian by John H. McGlynn

Fiction by Abidah El Khalieqy

Road to Heaven

When my mother died, her face changed. I was the first to notice. When other family members and friends came to pay their respects, what I saw in their eyes was doubt; none could believe that the deceased…

Translated from Indonesian by John H. McGlynn

Fiction by Reda Gaudiamo

Cik Giok

Don't forget to send the ticket for Cik Giok so that she can come to Jakarta. Don't forget to buy something for Cik Giok to wear . . . It was the planning meeting for my wedding. Why was Papa so…

Translated from Indonesian by John H. McGlynn

Fiction by Nenden Lilis A.

The Rooms Out Back

My husband and I always rise at 7:30 when the shadow of the cat crossing the tiled roof of our neighbor's house forms a silhouette on our bedroom curtain. Who can figure out why that cat, without any…

Translated from Indonesian by John H. McGlynn

Fiction by Oka Rusmini

The Century Carver

Kopag dropped his sharp chiseling knife, almost slicing open his own leg—and all because he'd detected a strange smell coming from the direction of the door, an aroma of dry leaves and damp wood.…

Translated from Indonesian by Pamela Allen

Subscribe to Words Without Borders

Next issue: February 2009    Previous issue: December 2008