I Am Woman!: Stories from Jurnal Perempuan

Indonesian author Julia Suryakusuma reminds us that “literature is ultimately about life,” a sentiment echoed by fellow countryman Seno Gumira Ajidarma when he wrote, “While journalism speaks with facts, literature speaks with the truth.” The truths found in the fourteen stories included in this collection derive from the historical, political, social, and cultural circumstances that circumscribe the lives of women in contemporary Indonesia and the ways in which they manage to find new spaces for themselves in those circumstances. While their victories are not always grand, we can hear these women roar as we read their stories. Published in conjunction with the tenth anniversary of Jurnal Perempuan, Indonesia's leading magazine on feminist issues.

In this volume stories published in Jurnal Perempuan by Putu Wijaya, Embun Kenyowati, Chairil Gibran Ramadhan, Dwi nastiti Arumsari, Oka Rusmini, Indah Surya Wardhani, Ully Siregar, Adji Subela, Soe Tjen Marching, Ufi Ulfiah, Lily Yulianti Farid, Shantined, Etik Juwita.

• Pamela Allen, Editor

• John H. McGlynn, Editor

  John H. McGlynn has translated several dozen publications under his own name, and through the Lontar Foundation, which he co-founded in 1987, has ushered into print close to two hundred books on Indonesian language, literature, and culture. He is the Indonesian country editor for MĀNOA, a literary journal published by the University of Hawai'i Press the senior editor for I-Lit, an on-line journal focusing on Indonesian literature in translation; a contributing editor to Words Without Borders and Warscapes, U.S. based literary journals; and an editor advisor for Jurnal Sastra, an Indonesian-language on-line journal. He is also a frequent speaker at seminars both in Indonesia and abroad.

• Putu Wijaya, Author

  Putu Wijaya is an extraordinary prolific author, he has written about thirty novels, forty dramas, numerous movie and television scripts, and many short stories and essays. He is also known for Teater Mandiri, widely regarded as Indonesia’s foremost theater collective. Putu’s works has won numerous awards; he has also received recognition from the international community, including a fellowship to study kabuki in Japan, a residency at the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, and a Fulbright Scholarship to teach Indonesian theater in US universities. His writings have been translated into Japanese, Arabic, Thai, and a number of Western languages.

• Embun Kenyowati, Author

• Pamela Allen, Translator

• Melita Eagling, Translator

• Andy Fuller, Translator