This Women in Translation month, we’re kickstarting Translating Feminisms 2: chapbooks by women and nonbinary writers from Indonesia and the Philippines. We spoke to Intan Paramaditha, author of Apple and Knife and The Wandering, about Translating Feminisms, Deviant Disciples, and the experience of working on the chapbook.
Can you tell our readers about the process of working with team TAP on Deviant Disciples?
Deborah Smith from Tilted Axis Press asked me if I’d be interested in editing a chapbook on Indonesian women poets as part of the Translating Feminisms series. I’ve been a fan of Translating Feminisms for some time, so I immediately said yes. I selected five Indonesian women poets I love, whose works represent different geographical backgrounds and generations, and I invited three translators to collaborate in this project. Tiffany Tsao, Norman Erikson Pasaribu, and Eliza Vitri Handayani are great translators and writers, and most importantly, they have been tirelessly promoting Indonesian literature, especially women and non-binary writers.
How has the curatorial and editorial experience been for you – from commissioning to working with translators and more? What were the rewards you gained and the challenges you faced during this journey?
It has been a great experience being supported by TAP and being connected to these feminist and queer translators and writers. it feels like having a small community that fights for the same goal: making the effort that allows people to hear different stories of women and challenge a singular version of feminism.
The process has been very collaborative. Each translator works closely with the writer to make sure that the poems are in the best shape. Selecting the poets was a very difficult process because there were too many women writers I’d like to include, but the space of the chapbook does not permit. I am aware of the limitation of my work, and I hope Deviant Disciples can be seen as a beginning rather than the end. A book like this is quite rare but it’s certainly not the first anthology of Indonesian women poets because Toeti Heraty, one of the poets featured in this chapbook, has edited a larger volume titled Rainbow: 18 Indonesian Women Poets. I expect to see more books by Indonesian women poets and writers being translated into other languages and find new readers.
One of the questions at the heart of this series is 'Does feminism translate?' Can you please speak to this?
Of course there will always be meanings that get lost in translation, but this does not stop us from translating, does it? Translating feminist writings and ideas is important so that we recognise that there are different forms of resistance. It’s a process of what Maria Lugones calls ‘learning about other resisters.’ Translating feminism must not be seen as a coherent, fully fleshed project. It will be incomplete, messy, and it’s probably full of contradictions, but the most important thing is to keep moving, together.
How would you describe your chapbook, Deviant Disciples, in a single sentence to our readers and pledgers?
Deviant Disciples, featuring 5 Indonesian women poets, is a small book that celebrates resistance, resilience, defiance, and the spirit of collaboration.
What are your thoughts on the first Translating Feminisms series – do you have a favourite chapbook? What made you want to join the family?
I don’t have a favourite chapbook. They are all great! I really admire the initiative. I think it’s a great effort to decolonise feminism and global literature. I view decolonising feminism as an orientation, an ongoing process, and it might take a long time until we fully dismantle the existing structures, but every little effort matters. This is why I decided to collaborate with TAP.
What are you reading this Women in Translation Month (#WITMonth)?
My academic work has been quite overwhelming, so I didn’t have the chance to read as much as I wanted to. But I’ve started reading Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail (tr. Elizabeth Jacquette). It’s haunting!
Intan Paramaditha is an Indonesian writer and an academic based in Sydney. She is the author of Apple and Knife (2018), a collection of short stories about disobedient women published in Australia and the UK. Her novel Gentayangan was selected as Tempo Best Literary Fiction of 2017 and translated by Stephen J. Epstein as The Wandering (Harvill Secker 2020). It received a PEN Translates Award from the English PEN and PEN/ Heim Translation Fund Grant from PEN America. She holds a Ph.D. from New York University and teaches media and film studies at Macquarie University.
Q&A by Sana Goyal.
Support Translating Feminisms 2 by pledging to our Kickstarter.