Leila S. Chudori

Leila S. Chudori is an author, journalist and regular contributor to Tempo Magazine, and screenwriter for film and television. Her first novel, Pulang (Home) follows the lives of the 1965 Indonesian political exiles in Europe, and has received the Khatulistiwa Award in 2013 for Best Prose that has been translated into five languages, including English, German, and Dutch. Her literary career began at an early age, and since then she has published two short story collections, 9 Dari Nadira and Malam Terakhir, and The Longest Kiss, which was published in English and German. Her latest work, Laut Bercerita, a novel on the kidnapping of 1998 activists, is a national best seller and will soon appear in English under the title The Sea Speaks His Name. The novel was launched in 2017 with a short movie of the same title. Her writings explore the untold parts of Indonesian history and politics, the cultural and social position of women, forbidden literature, and the shifting heritage of a war-torn archipelago that we call Indonesia.