Ni Made Purnama Sari

Ni Made Purnama Sari is a Balinese writer and the author of two poetry collections, Bali Borneo and Kawitan, and two novels, Kalamata and Yang Menari dalam Bayangan Inang Mati.

Her work has earned several literary awards and been featured at festivals in Melbourne, Paris, and India. Her poetry, which has been translated into English and French, reflects her deep engagement with the arts. Based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, she manages programs at Bentara Budaya art gallery and remains active in the cultural scene.

Articles by Ni Made Purnama Sari

Four Poems by Ni Made Purnama Sari, trans. by Norman Erikson Pasaribu

Norman Erikson Pasaribu translates four poems by Ni Made Purnama Sari, whom they call 'one of the most important Balinese writers working today'. These poems were published in Purnama's 2015 collection, Kawitan, which explores how Balinese people relate to both their ancestral pasts and their futures in a home subject to intense environmental exploitation and touristic, (neo)colonial exoticisation. 'To translate these poems is to understand Purnama’s experiences,' Pasaribu says, 'and then respond to the giant that is Western ignorance of lives in the Global South.' All four poems are presented here in both the original Indonesian and in English.

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