Norman Erikson Pasaribu is an Indonesian-language poet, translator, editor, and writer of short stories.

Biography

Norman Erikson Pasaribu was born in 1990 in Jakarta, Indonesia. They are of

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Toba Batak background and are

Queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

. They began to write poetry from a young age. Among their literary influences are

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and Mary Gordon. Pasaribu's first book was the 2014 collection of short stories (You Alone Know How Long I Have to Wait), published by Gramedia Pustaka Utama. It was a finalist for the 2014 Khatulistiwa Literary Award for Prose. Their next book was the 2015 poetry collection (Sergius seeks Bacchus). The book was critically well received and won first prize at the Jakarta Arts Council’s Poetry Manuscript Competition and was a finalist for the 2016 Khatulistiwa Literary Award for Poetry. The book was translated into English by Tiffany Tsao, with whom Pasaribu developed a close working relationship and friendship. The book was published by Tilted Axis Press and won the 2018 PEN Translates Award. Pasaribu also won the 2017 Young Author Award from the Southeast Asia Literary Council. In 2024, Pasaribu published their first book of poetry written originally in English, ''My Dream Job''. About the book,

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said, "... the collection inverts then rotates the condition of memory to emanate carefree, surreal logics." Pasaribu co-edited ''In the Back of My Throat'', an anthology about queer Indonesian experiences across borders and other stories told with no shame. Pasaribu's ''Happy Stories, Mostly'' (translated by Tiffany Tsao) won the 2022

Republic of Consciousness Prize The Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses is an annual British literary prize founded by the author Neil Griffiths. It rewards fiction published by UK and Irish small presses, defined as those with fewer than five full-time employee ...

and was longlisted for the 2022

International Booker Prize The International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize) is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize, as the Boo ...

. The book received positive critical attention, including from the New York Times, which found it unhappy but meaningful. In 2022, Pasaribu was the

English PEN Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' associa ...

international writer in residence at Essex Writers House in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...

in the United Kingdom. They were the 2023–2024 Artist in Residence at the

Harvard University Asia Center The Harvard University Asia Center is an interdisciplinary research and education unit of Harvard University, established on July 1, 1997, with the goal of "driving varied programs focusing on international relations in Asia and comparative studi ...

in Boston in the United States. In 2025, Pasaribu was selected as one of the fellows of the DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Program.

Selected works

* (Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2014) * (Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2016) ** translated to English by Tiffany Tsao as ''Sergius Seeks Bacchus'' (Tilted Axis/Giramondo Publishing, 2019) * (Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2020) ** translated to English by Tiffany Tsao as ''Happy Stories, Mostly'' (The Feminist Press, 2023) * (Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2020)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pasaribu, Norman Erikson 1990 births Living people Writers from Jakarta Queer writers Batak people Indonesian translators 21st-century Indonesian poets 21st-century Indonesian short story writers Indonesian male poets