Photo: Mirna Yulistianti

Norman Erikson Pasaribu

Norman Erikson Pasaribu was born in Jakarta in 1990. Their first short story collection Hanya Kamu yang Tahu Berapa Lama Lagi Aku Harus Menunggu (Only You Know How Much Longer I Should Wait) was shortlisted for the 2014 Khatulistiwa Literary Award for Prose. Their debut poetry collection Sergius Mencari Bacchus (Sergius Seeks Bacchus) won the 2015 Jakarta Arts Council Poetry Competition, was shortlisted for the 2016 Khatulistiwa Literary Award for Poetry and named by Tempo as one of the best poetry collections of that year. Their short story collection Happy Stories, Mostly won the 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize and was longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.

Titles

Fiction

144 pages
Paperback, 21 x 14.8 cm
Published March 2022
ISBN 9781925818949

Happy Stories, Mostly is a playful, charged and tender collection of twelve stories – a blend of speculative fiction and dark absurdism, often drawing on Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Batak and Christian cultures.

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Poetry

96 pages
Paperback, 21 x 14.8 cm
Published May 2019
ISBN 9781925818109

Norman Erikson Pasaribu is one of Indonesia’s most vital and irresistible new writers, a poet distinguished by his tender, tragicomic voice. Drawing on the experiences of fellow members of the queer community and especially on the poet’s life as a writer of Bataknese descent and Christian background, the collection furnishes readers with an alternative gospel, a book of bittersweet good news pieced together from the poet’s encounters with ridicule, persecution, loneliness, and also happiness.

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