Leila Chudori

(Indonesia, 1962) is one of the most remarkable contemporary Indonesian writers. In her short stories she exposes taboos in her country and stands up for the right to the self-determination of women. Chudori studied political science in Canada. With her stories she gets a dialogue going between tradition and modernity, whereby the macho society and Indonesian chauvinism bears the brunt. Her latest book, 9 dari Nadira, begins with Nadira’s mother's suicide. Nadira dives into her mother's past, she studied in Amsterdam in the 1950s, got married and had children. Her collection of short stories Malam Terakhir of 1989 was translated into German. Leila Chudori has worked as a journalist since 1989, for among others the critical news magazine Tempo. She uses her experiences as a journalist in her short stories. In addition she writes tv and film scripts. Chudori is active on facebook (www.facebook.com/leila.s.chudori) and twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/leilaschudori).