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Jakarta Post

Crafting words for the world at Writers’ Series

Mightier than the sword: The Jakarta Post editor in chief Endy M

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, May 15, 2017

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Crafting words for the world at Writers’ Series

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span class="inline inline-center">Mightier than the sword: The Jakarta Post editor in chief Endy M. Bayuni (right) speaks as writer Danny Yatim looks on during the Writers’ Series event organized by The Jakarta Post Writing Center in Jakarta on Saturday. Writers from Indonesia and abroad attended the event.(JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

In her monologue performance, writer and journalist Feby Indirani slowly transformed her initial appearance by putting on a hijab to cover herself and, finally, a niqab, leaving only her eyes for others to see while she read her short story titled, The Woman Who Lost Her Face.

“One morning Annisa woke up, and when she looked in the mirror, she realized she no longer had a nose,” so the story began.

Soon after, it was business as usual for the character, who drives to work and to the supermarket, although she crossed a beauty salon off her to-do list. She is already used to people staring at her niqab, which she donned as a request from her husband to cover the beauty she chooses to admire herself.

Annisa, however, keeps her distance from familiar faces, always contemplating whether to announce her presence, including from a particular man from her past she saw again that day.

With a text message from her husband from out of town reaffirming his love, Annisa could sleep through the night without telling him anything. The next morning, her lips were gone.

“What I did on stage was symbolic. I intend to encourage people to have empathy towards others by experiencing themselves from the point of view of women in niqab. I tried to explore that in this short story,” said Feby, who expects to publish a book of her short stories.

The captivating reading was part of the second annual The Writers’ Series event on Saturday at the Kota Kasablanka shopping mall in South Jakarta, organized by The Jakarta Post Writing Center in partnership with a number of media outlets and with support from several companies.

The subjects discussed at the free event varied, ranging from semantics and writing techniques, perspectives in writing and problems in publishing written works to the obligation of a writer to maintain a distance with their story.

This year, organizers picked the main theme of “Tell Stories That Matter” to best reflect the society represented by aspiring writers joining the event.

For one day, members of the audience interested in the literary world could engage in lively discussions with New York-based, Hong Kong novelist Xu Xi; award-winning American writer Robin Hemley; Singapore-based, Filipino poet and essayist Lawrence Ypil and Dai Fan, a professor of English at the Sun Yat-sen University in China.

Homegrown writers who spoke at the event included poet and writer Aan Mansyur; founder and editor of feminist magazine Magdalene Devi Asmarani; Danny Yatim and Debra Yatim — both writers and English writing instructors as well as Melani Budianta, an English professor at the University of Indonesia, who engaged in a dialogue on how writers and their writings could contribute to the world.

Founder and CEO of SociaBuzz.com Rade Tampubolon talked about how storytellers have become more relevant as today’s influencers, while managing editor of Life in The Jakarta Post online Asmara Wreksono spoke about “reading between the lines” of anything posted on a digital platform. Meanwhile, Steve Wirawan, founder and CEO of Storial.co publishing and travel blogger Windy Ariestanty of Iwashere.id talked about today’s trend of putting stories “out there.”

In a program called the Living Library, members of the audience could “borrow” one of the six speakers — the paper man, the activist, radio girl, female engineer, woman writer and librarian — who would then tell his or her personal story and engage in conversation with the “readers.”

Xi, who arrived in Jakarta on Sunday morning, was impressed with the line-up of speakers, which included poets, journalists, editors and practitioners of digital media.

Xi also said one thing she always told aspiring writers was for them to read literature from all parts of the world.

“It’s really important to hear what the rest of the world has to say. We keep saying it’s a global world, but when it comes to writing we’re sort of provincial,” she said.

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