Islands of Imagination I: Modern Indonesian Drama

In anticipation of the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair in October—where Indonesian literature will be spotlighted—MĀNOA journal presents Islands of Imagination, Volume One: Modern Indonesian Plays as its winter 2014 issue. Co-edited by Frank Stewart, John H. McGlynn, and Cobina Gillitt, the volume contains seven works written between 1933 and 2009. These plays are all united by the literary artistry and treatment of social issues that characterize modern Indonesian drama. Contributors include Rita Matu Mona, Armijn Pané, N. Riantiarno, Ratna Sarumpaet, Iwan Simatupang, Luna Vidya, and Putu Wijaya.

Modern Indonesian Plays is published in cooperation with the Lontar Foundation of Indonesia. The second volume will follow as the winter 2015 issue.John H. McGlynn is a Jakarta-based editor, translator, and the founder of the Lontar Foundation. Cobina Gillitt, PhD, is a freelance dramaturg, translator, and university professor based in New York City.

• Frank Stewart, Editor

  Frank Stewart is a writer, translator, and founding editor of Mānoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing. He is professor emeritus of English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

• 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.

• Cobina Gillitt, Editor

  Cobina Gillitt is a translator, freelance dramaturg, and assistant professor of Theatre and Performance at SUNY Purchase. She co-edited and wrote the introduction for Islands of Imagination I: Modern Indonesian Plays (University of Hawai'i Press, 2015) which includes two of her translations, Ought by Putu Wijaya and Make Note! by Rita Matu Mona.