Afrizal Malna sits apart from many of Indonesia's recent poets. Not only is he a productive literary and theater critic, he is a novelists and short story writer as well. In a writing career that has now spanned more than thirty years, Afrizal has published several major collections of poetry. His poems have been translated into Dutch, German, and English, of which this is the first full length collection.

Afrizal is concerned with a questioning of language and a bodily engagement with public and private space, things and their connotations and associations. It is through the appearance...

Budi Darma's stories are absurdist and surreal. Often in conversation form, they draw content from mythology, legends, and fables. There is an omnipresent mood of darkness that pervades much of his writing; a kind of bleak perspective that lies behind a thin cloak of normality and peace. In the modernist manner, Darma is interested in style, structure, themes, and plot. Yet at the same time, he disavows himself pf the role of creator and regards his short stories as being the result of something external.