Seno Gumira Ajidarma
Biography
Seno Gumira Ajidarma is a prolific author of short stories, novels, and columns. He is also known as a journalist, photographer and lecturer. Seno’s short stories both document everyday life and criticise contemporary social, cultural and political conditions. He writes about sensitive issues, including military violence in East Timor in the short stories of Eyewitness and in his 1996 novel, Jazz, Parfum dan Insiden (Jazz, Perfume and an Incident). Other subject matter has included the so-called “mysterious killings” in East Java in the early 1980s, and instability in Aceh. He won some literary awards, among others the South East Asia (SEA) Write Award (1997), Dinny O’Hearn Prize for Literary Translation for Eyewitness (1997), Literary Award from Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture for the short story collection Dilarang Menyanyi di Kamar Mandi (Don’t Sing in the Bathroom, 1997), Khatulistiwa Literary Award for his novel Negeri Senja (The Land of Twilight, 2004) and for Kitab Omong Kosong (The Book of Nonsense, 2005). His newest book is Transit (2018), a short story collection, and Obrolan Sukab (Sukab’s Conversations, 2018), an essay collection. He is working on Nagabumi, a historical wuxia novel series.
