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Budi Darma
Budi Darma (25 April 1937 – 21 August 2021) was an Indonesian writer, essayist, and academic. Early lifeBudi is the fourth of six children, all male.[1] During his childhood and teens, Budi and his family lived in a number of different cities in Java, including Yogyakarta, Bandung and Semarang, due to the nature of his father's position in the postal service.[2] His schooling reflected his family's nomadic existence. Budi attended elementary school in Kudus, junior high in Salatiga, and high school in Semarang, graduating from there in 1957.[2] He then studied at the English Literature Department, Faculty of Letters, University of Gadjah Mada.[2] After graduating in 1963, Budi moved to Iowa for the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.[1] In 1970, he received a scholarship from the East-West Center to study humanities at the University of Hawaii, before graduating with an MA from Indiana University Bloomington in 1976.[3] Four years later, in 1980, he earned his Ph.D. for his dissertation on "Character and Moral Judgment in Jane Austen's Novels", from the same university.[2] AcademiaBudi's return to Indonesia was followed by a succession of notable appointments: between the years 1984-1987 he was appointed Dean of the English Department of the State University of Surabaya (formerly IKIP Surabaya), became a member of the Arts Council, and Rector of the Surabaya Teachers' Training College.[3] Budi Darma continued lecturing at the English Department of the State University of Surabaya until his retirement, at the age of 70, in 2007.[4] Literary worksBudi is often described as one of Indonesia's most influential writers.[5] In 1983 Budi wrote the novel, Olenka. It was his first novel, inspired by a woman he met while studying at Bloomington. The title was taken from a collection of short stories by Anton Chekov.[6] Although set in America, the novel remains steadfastly Indonesian in its use of Javanese wordplay to tell the story of an amorous plight of a young man with Olenka, the female heroine. Budi has explained his reasons for his choice of style as being due to his firm belief that a writer will never lose his or her roots, no matter how distanced from their place of birth.[6] The novel was published by Balai Pustaka and went on to win several awards including the Jakarta Art Institute Literary award and the S.E.A. Write Award (Southeast Asian Write award).[6] "Olenka" has been reprinted several times, the most recent reprinting coincided with the Indonesian Book Festival in Senayan, Central Jakarta in 2009.[6] Although Olenka is his best known work, Budi was also the author of several novels, a number of collections of short stories and essays.[2] Prior to writing Olenka, he published an anthology of eight short stories, called Orang-orang Bloomington (Bloomington People) (published 1980).[2] After Olenka, he wrote the novels Rafilus, published in 1988, and Ny. Talis, published in 1996.[2] As of 2010, Budi Darma had authored over 38 works, many of which are available in translation worldwide.[7] DeathBudi died on 21 August 2021, at the age of 84, from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia.[8][9][10] Accolades
Notable worksBook
Novel
Short story
Short story anthology
Essay
Essay anthology
TranslationThe Legacy (1996) Non-Literature
References
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