The Cornell Southeast Asia Program will host the visit of Indonesia's most accomplished prose writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, to Central New York, April 15-20.
The author will present a reading from his recently published memoir, The Mute's Soliloquy (Hyperion Press) Monday, April 19, at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall. Pramoedya will read in Indonesian with an English translation to follow.
A public reception and book signing, coordinated by the Campus Store, are scheduled immediately following the reading at 5:15 p.m. at the Andrew Dickson White House. These events are free and open to the public. However, tickets will be distributed at the reading for those who wish to have a book signed by the author. Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Another book signing, hosted by The Bookery in the Bookery II, located in downtown Ithaca in the DeWitt Mall, will be held Saturday, April 17, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Copies of the author's books will be available for purchase at both book signings.
This is Pramoedya's first visit to the United States and will include travel to New York City, Washington, D.C., Ann Arbor, Mich., Madison, Wisc., Los Angeles and San Francisco. He also will visit the Canadian cities of Vancouver and Toronto. He is in the United States to participate in an academic conference at Fordham University in honor of his achievements, to promote his new book and to conduct numerous presentations. He will be awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters at the University of Michigan's commencement May 1.
During his visit to Cornell, he will meet with faculty and graduate students of the Southeast Asia Program, meet privately with Cornell President Hunter Rawlings and with staff from Cornell's Kroch Library. The library's Echols Collection on Southeast Asia will display an exhibit of its holdings by and about the author in the library's Asia Reading Room, April 10--25. The Southeast Asia Program's Office of Publications recently has published a book of Pramoedya's short stories written in the 1950s, translated into English, titled Tales from Djakarta: Caricatures of Circumstances and Their Human Beings. The April 1996 issue of SEAP's journal, Indonesia (#61), features articles about the author and his stories. His latest work, a memoir, The Mute's Soliloquy is published by Hyperion Press. He achieved international popularity through his series of four books -- also known as the Buru Quartet -- which include This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps and House of Glass, all published by Penguin Putnam.
Pramoedya has authored numerous works of fiction and nonfiction that have been translated into at least 28 languages.
Pramoedya, who was born in 1925 in Java, was arrested in 1961 and held without a trial for almost a year because of his book Hoa Kiau di Indonesia (The Chinese in Indonesia), which challenged the Sukarno government's campaign against the Chinese. He was arrested again for his critical writings and close alignment with the Indonesian Communist Party cultural group (LEKRA). From Oct. 13, 1965, to Dec. 20, 1979, he was imprisoned without trial and exiled in various Indonesian locales. Although Pramoedya was released from prison in 1980, he was confined to Jakarta and had to report to his parole officer every month until Suharto was ousted last year.
For more information about Pramoedya's visit, contact Penny Dietrich at SEAP's Office of Outreach at 275-9452; 255-3619, ext. 15; or e-mail: pn12@cornell.edu.
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