Laksmi Pamuntjak
Laksmi Pamuntjak is an Indonesian novelist, poet, journalist and food critic based in Jakarta. In 2016, she won the for the German translation of her debut novel, Amba/The Question of Red. In 2018, the movie adaptation of her second novel, ', won two prizes at the Festival Film Indonesia. In 2020, her third novel, , won the Singapore Book Award for . She also writes widely on culture and politics including for the Jakarta Post and the Indonesian newsmagazine Tempo, as well as international publications such as ' and the ''Guardian.''
Early life and education
Pamuntjak was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, to a German-trained architect father,, and a beautician mother Endang Soeyono Martowardojo. Pamuntjak’s paternal grandfather, Kasoema Sutan Pamuntjak, was one of the directors of the Indonesian state-owned publishing house Balai Pustaka before he co-founded Djambatan publishing house in 1954.Pamuntjak went to high school at the United World College of Southeast Asia in Singapore and matriculated at Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Perth in 1989. In 1993, she graduated with a in Asian Studies from Murdoch University.
Pamuntjak’s only daughter, Nadia Larasati, was born in Jakarta in 1996.
Career
Pamuntjak began her journalistic career by writing on literature and politics for TEMPO newsmagazine in the mid-1990s. She also wrote movie, classical music, restaurant and book reviews for the Jakarta Post. In 2015, she began writing op-eds on Indonesian politics and culture for the '. Her writing also appeared in ', , and .In 2001, Pamuntjak co-founded with her childhood friends, Winfred Hutabarat and Davy Djohan. The same year also saw the publication of the first edition of her award-winning ' –an independent culinary guide series to Jakarta.
Pamuntjak’s collections of poetry, ' and ', were published in 2005 and 2007 respectively. Her collection of short fictions inspired by paintings, The Diary of R.S.: Musings on Art, was published in 2006, followed by the publication of her treatise on man, violence and mythology ' in 2007. Her poetry and prose were later republished in a 2016 collection, .
In 2012, at, a historic gathering of world poets at the Southbank Centre, London, held in conjunction with the 2012 London Olympics.
Pamuntjak’s two novels in Bahasa Indonesia, Amba/The Question of Red and ', were published in 2012 and 2014 respectively, while her first novel in English, ' came out in 2019.
In 2020, Pamuntjak published '', a collection of short stories on women in relationships.
Award-Winning Works
, the German translation of Pamuntjak’s debut novel, Amba/The Question of Red, won the in 2016. Alle Farben Rot was also named #1 on Germany’s list of the best works of fiction from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Arab World translated into German. In Indonesia, Amba/The Question of Red was shortlisted for the 2013 Khatulistiwa Literary Award. A modern love story set against the backdrop of the Indonesian Communist mass-massacres of 1965-1968, the novel has been translated into, and .In 2018, Pamuntjak’s first novel in English, , was published in Germany under the title Herbstkind. A year later, the original English version won the .
Curatorial Works
In 2014, Pamuntjak co-curated the with Hana Makarim as part of the Jakarta Old Town Revitalization program.In 2022, she co-curated, a literary exhibition to commemorate the centennial of the great Indonesian poet Chairil Anwar at Galeri Salihara.
Between 2009 and 2011, she was international jury member of the .