Although Hasif Amini studied economics at the University of Indonesia, his interest in literature led him to change course and become a freelance translator, essayist, and editor. He served as literary curator at the Utan Kayu Arts Community, later the Salihara Arts Community.
He is also editor of the Indonesian domain of Poetry International (www.poetryinternational.org) and guest editor of the poetry column in the newspaper Kompas. Amini has translated the selected fiction of Jorge Luis Borges in a book entitled Labirin Impian (1999). In the years before that, he also edited a collection of short stories, Para Pembohong (1996), and was co-translator and co-editor for the poetry collection The Poets’ Chant (1995).