LAKSMI PAMUNTJAK（拉什米•帕穆尼亚克）
Poet, novelist, essayist, translator and food writer
INDONESIA

Laksmi Pamuntjak (b. 1971) is an Indonesian poet, novelist, essayist, translator and award-winning food writer. She writes for numerous local and international publications including opinion articles for the Guardian.

She is the author of two collections of poetry (one of which, Ellipsis, appeared in the 2005 Herald UK Books of the Year pages), a treatise on the relationship between man and violence based on the Iliad; a collection of short stories based on paintings; four editions of the best-selling and award-winning Jakarta Good Food Guide; two translations of the works of leading Indonesian poet and essayist Goenawan Mohamad; and two best-selling novels.

Amba, published in English as The Question of Red, has been translated into German (Alle Farben Rot, 2015) and Dutch (Amba of De Kleur Van Rood, 2015). Aruna and Her Palate, the English translation of Aruna dan Lidahnya, will be published in the US in early 2017. The American edition of The Question of Red will also be published in the US in July 2016.

Alle Farben Rot was Number 1 on the Weltempfaenger (Receivers of the World) List for best work of fiction translated into German from outside Germany. It has also appeared, among others, on the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's list of 8 Most Important Novels of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015, Die Bild's Top 10 Books of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015, and the ORF Kultur (Austria)'s Top 10 List for November 2015.

In 2012, Pamuntjak, who is co-founder of the bilingual Aksara Bookstore, was selected as the Indonesian representative at the Poetry Parnassus/Cultural Olympics in London, held in conjunction with the London Olympics. Her prose and poetry have been published in many international journals, including the preface to Not a Muse: A World Poetry Anthology (2008).

Between 2009 and 2011, Pamuntjak was member of the international prize jury of the Amsterdam-based art philantrophic organization the Prince Claus Fund, on behest of the Dutch Royal Family. She currently divides her time between Berlin and Jakarta.