Budi Darma


Budi Darma, BA, MA, Prof. Emeritus is often described as one of Indonesia's most influential writers. He is the fourth of six children, all male. 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. His schooling reflected his family's nomadic existence. Budi's attended elementary school in Kudus, junior high in Salatiga, and high school in Semarang, graduating from there in 1957. He then studied at the English Literature Department, Faculy of Letters, University of Gadjah Mada. After graduating in 1963, Budi moved to Iowa for the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. 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. 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. His 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, became a member of the Arts Council, and Rector of the Surabaya Teachers' Training College. Budi Darma continued lecturing at the English Department of the State University of Surabaya until his retirement, at the age of 70, in 2007.
In 1983 Budi wrote the novel, Olenka. It was his first work, inspired by a woman he met while studying at Bloomington. The title was taken from a collection of short stories by Anton Chekov. 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. 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. "Olenka" has been reprinted several times, the most recent reprinting coincided with the Indonesian Book Festival in Senayan, Central Jakarta in 2009.
Although Olenka is his best known work, Budi is also the author of several novels, a number of collections of short stories and essays. Prior to writing Olenka, he published an anthology of eight short stories, called Orang-orang Bloomington After Olenka, he wrote the novels Rafilus, published in 1988, and Ny. Talis, published in 1996. As at 2010, Budi Darma has authored over 38 works, many of which are available in translation worldwide.

Educational background

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Book

The Legacy

Non-Literature