Angelique Kasmara
Angelique Kasmara | |||
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| Born | Bandung, Indonesia | ||
| Nationality | Indonesian | ||
| Citizenship | Indonesia | ||
| Occupation |
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Angelique Kasmara is a fiction writer, editor and translator born in Bandung, Indonesia.[1] Her family moved to New Zealand when she was a baby, and she grew up in West Auckland, attending Freyberg Memorial Primary School and St Dominic's College. She spent two years in the 1990s working in media publishing in Jakarta, returning to New Zealand because of political unrest in Indonesia. In Auckland she has worked with refugee communities and belongs to a "Free West Papua" group. [2]
In 2011 her story "Asians with Perms" was a finalist for the NZSA Asian Short Story Award, judged by Renee Liang. [3] In 2016 Kasmara was awarded the Sir James Wallace Prize at the University of Auckland for best portfolio on the Master of Creative Writing programme.[4] This prize was for the first draft of her novel Isobar Precinct, later a finalist for the $10,000 Text Michael Gifkins Prize for an unpublished manuscript. [5]
When the book was released by Cuba Press in 2021, Kasmara became one of the first Asian New Zealand women writers to publish a literary novel. [6] Alison Wong, the only Asian NZ writer to win the main fiction prize at New Zealand's national book awards, selected an excerpt from Isobar Precinct for the 2021 anthology A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand (Auckland University Press). [7] In the introduction to that anthology, the first-ever collection of work by Asian NZ writers, Wong and co-editor Paula Morris note that among the 75 writers represented, only four were working on novels: Kasmara, Cybonn Ang, Szening Oii and Sherry Zhu.
Isobar Precinct is a work of contemporary speculative fiction grounded in a gritty inner-city Auckland. Kasmara cites Kindred by Octavia E. Butler|Octavia Butler and Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang as influences while writing the book. [8]. Isobar Precinct has been described as a "sparkling, stylish novel" [9] and "epic, bold and cinematic" [10]. Emeritus Professor Brian Boyd describes Kasmara as a writer with "real narrative bite" whose "imagery is first rate, often surprising and at times quite revelatory (and diverse in angle of attack), and the characters connect in ways that count". [11] The novel was selected as one of the 100 Best Books of 2021 by the NZ Listener. [12] It was also included in the Best Books 2021 selection of the Academy of New Zealand Literature. [13] The novel debuted at number three on the Nielsen Bookscan NZ fiction bestseller list. [14]
Kasmara has published short fiction on the Newsroom site[15] and another excerpt from Isobar Precinct appeared in the anthology Ko Aotearoa Tātou/We Are New Zealand (Otago University Press 2020) [16]). The novel was also featured by Kete Books in their First Chapters section. [17]
She was one of six New Zealand writers commissioned by the Nelson Arts Festival to write and record a work of creative nonfiction for their 2021 Writing Home: An Antidote to Feeling Stranded digital series. [18] Two of Kasmara's stories, “Distant Planet” and “A Bad Day for a Virgin Sail", are forthcoming in the first-ever bilingual Mexican anthology of New Zealand short fiction published by AMETLI and Ediciones Del Lirio. Her short story "Battle Lines" will be published in the NZ Listener in January 2022.
Kasmara is the editor of the University of Auckland's online literary journal, The Three Lamps. [19] In 2021 she served as literary advisor to the Going West Writers Festival in Auckland. [20] Kasmara is represented by High Spot Literary Agency. [21]
Bibliography
- Isobar Precinct (2021)
- "Writing Home" essay (2021)
- Excerpt in A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa NZ anthology(2021)
- Excerpt in Ko Aotearoa Tātou anthology (2020)
- "Mall Rats" story (2020)
References
- ↑ [1] Bandung, Indonesia, Britannica
- ↑ [2] Portrait: Angelique Kasmara, Newsroom
- ↑ [3] Wellington Writer Wins NZSA Asian Short Story Award, Creative New Zealand, November 2011
- ↑ [4], December 2016, University of Auckland (accessed 1 January 2021)
- ↑ [5] Meet the Authors Shortlisted for the 2019 Michael Gifkins Prize, Text Publishing
- ↑ [6] Cuba Press
- ↑ [7] Auckland University Press
- ↑ [8] Q & A with Angelique Kasmara, Read Close
- ↑ [9]Academy of New Zealand Literature book review
- ↑ [10] "Gritty K' Road: A review of Isobar Precinct, Pantograph Punch
- ↑ [11]
- ↑ [12] NZ Listener 100 Best Books of 2021, Booksellers Aotearoa NZ,
- ↑ [13] Best Books 2021, Academy of New Zealand Literature, https://www.anzliterature.com/feature/best-books-2021/ (accessed 3 January 2022)
- ↑ [14] The Bestselling Books at Christmas, ReadingRoom
- ↑ [15]Newsroom(accessed 1 January 2021)
- ↑ [16]Otago University Press
- ↑ [17] First Chapters '21: Isobar Precinct, Kete Books
- ↑ [18] Writing Home: An Antidote to Feeling Stranded / Pukapuka Talks, Nelson Arts Festival
- ↑ [19]The Three Lamps
- ↑ [20] Going West Writers Festival
- ↑ [21] High Spot Literary Agency: The Authors
External links
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