Indonesia, 1998. With the fall of Suharto’s 32-year autocratic regime following years of political turmoil and violence, the ‘Reformation Era’ was ushered in. Heaped upon it were promises of freedom, …

“Sink it” became a national catchphrase after Indonesia’s maverick (now former) Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries fulfilled her threat to sink any foreign boats found illegally fishing in Indonesian …

Each year UWRF puts a call out to emerging writers across the archipelago: send us your stories. In 2019, we received 1,253 submissions, the highest number since the Emerging Writers …

Around 9 million Indonesians live and work overseas, along with countless descendants of Indonesian migrants. Our panel of orang Indonesia living in diaspora recounted their personal experiences of what it means to …

Indonesian comic superheroes have long been in the stranglehold of foreign character translations. But the Marvel Cinematic Universe is creating demand for local superheroes, along with Gundala, a recent film based …

The dust has far from settled on #MeToo, “a movement that represents probably the greatest and most conspicuous collaboration of women since the suffragettes”, according to Sam George-Allen. With the …

Poppy tears, opium, heroin, fentanyl: poppy latex is a commodity without rival. Acclaimed cultural historian Lucy Inglis took us on an epic journey from ancient Mesopotamia to modern America and …

Andreas Harsono has covered Indonesia for Human Rights Watch since 2008. His new book Race, Islam and Power: Ethnic and Religious Violence in Post-Suharto Indonesia is the result of his 15-year project …

“We’re fractured nations because we’re not reading or translating each other,” said Malaysian author Bernice Chauly during the UWRF17 panel on the 50th anniversary of ASEAN. Join our group of …

The domestic, the interior and the personal have traditionally been relegated to the realm of women’s writing, which in recent years has been dismissed as too small to attract significant …