Mona Sylviana was born in 1972 in Bandung, West Java. After graduating from the Faculty of Communications at the University of Pajajaran, she spent a considerable time at the Arts, Literature, Theatre and Film Forum there. Sylviana’s short stories have been printed throughout the national media and have also been included in several anthologies with other writers.
Her short story anthology, Wajah Terakhir (The Last Face), was published in 2011. Among the many distinctive qualities of Sylviana’s stories are scenes that are unapologetically beyond the pale. Dirt, ugliness, and darkness—both physical and in the minds of her characters—appear without any attenuation. Though Sylviana’s fictional world is not a safe place for women, they don’t always respond to situations as objects or victims—they often take positions as “abjects” who wage confrontation against the accepted order.
