We interviewed Mona Sylviana, an Indonesian fiction writer and essayist. Her short story collection Wajah Terakhir (Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2011) explores the lives of women in contemporary Indonesia. Her work has been translated into English, German, and French, and published in international anthologies including A Tale of Redemption & Other Stories (Lontar Foundation, 2015) and Footprints (Dalang Publishing, 2022). She is the author of Para Penjaga Tanah (dan) Air (Guardians of Land and Water, Noken Studio Nusantara, 2026), a collection of essays about indigenous communities in Central Sulawesi. She is currently working on a short story collection.
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1. Welcome to the IWP! Do you have a plan or project in mind for your time at the residency?
I recently completed a collection of essays on the complexities of Indigenous communities in Central Sulawesi as they protect and care for their land and water. After years of writing nonfiction grounded in questions of place, memory, and belonging, I returned to a short story collection that explores similar concerns through fiction. The collection is divided into two interconnected parts, each centered on a woman living in Paris. They belong to different generations and inherit Indonesia’s history in different ways. The first consists of flash fiction pieces about the daughter of a leader of Indonesia's banned political party, living in exile in Paris. The second follows a woman who grew up in post-Reformation Indonesia and later finds herself in the same city. Through their stories, I explore distance, inheritance, and the ways political history continues to shape everyday life. Although one project is nonfiction and the other fiction, both are driven by a similar question: how history and place continue to shape who we are. My goal during the residency is to finish the remaining stories and complete the editing of the manuscript. I am also looking forward to conversations with fellow writers, which I hope will bring new perspectives to the project.
2. How do you think the IWP Residency will benefit your writing craft, as well as your professional writing life?
I think the residency will benefit my writing craft by placing me in conversation with writers whose histories, languages, and literary traditions differ greatly from my own. Much of my work explores the relationship between people, places, and the political histories that continue to shape everyday life. I am interested in seeing how writers from different parts of the world transform similar questions into literary form. Because I often move between nonfiction and fiction, I am especially curious about how other writers navigate the relationship between lived experience, memory, and imagination. I hope these conversations will challenge my assumptions and help me see both my work and my writing process differently. Professionally, the residency offers a rare opportunity to build lasting relationships with writers, translators, editors, and readers from around the world. Coming from Indonesia, I value the chance not only to introduce my work to new audiences, but also to become part of an ongoing literary conversation that extends beyond national and linguistic boundaries. I hope these connections will continue to shape my writing life long after the residency ends.
3. What are you currently reading right now? Are you reading for research or pleasure?
At the moment, I am rereading two books that I have returned to many times over the years: George Orwell’s “Down and Out in Paris and London” and Italo Calvino’s “Difficult Loves”. I am reading them mostly for pleasure, though I have learned that reading for pleasure and reading for work are not always easy to separate. Since part of my current fiction project is set in Paris, Orwell allows me to revisit a version of the city that exists beyond its familiar images. Calvino, meanwhile, reminds me of the precision, lightness, and playfulness that fiction can achieve. Returning to books I know well often helps me think about my own writing in unexpected ways.
4. What is one thing the readers and writers of Iowa City should know about you and your work?
One thing readers and writers in Iowa City should know about my work is that I am deeply interested in how people remember places. Whether I am writing nonfiction about Indigenous communities in Central Sulawesi or fiction about Indonesians living in Paris, I am interested in the stories people tell, the names they give to places, and the everyday practices through which they maintain a relationship with home. Different projects may take me to very different settings, but those questions continue to accompany me. I rarely begin with answers. Most of my writing grows out of questions that resist simple conclusions. For me, literature is not a place where things get solved. It is a place where things become impossible to ignore.
5. Tell us about where you are from - what are a few favorite details you would like to share about your home?
I come from Bandung Regency, about 30 kilometers from the center of Bandung in West Java. Bandung sits in a basin surrounded by mountains and was once part of an ancient lake. I have always liked that image: a city shaped by water long before it became a city. Many people know Bandung for its food, shopping, and colonial-era architecture. Since the colonial period, it has been known as a place of retreat and leisure, and traces of that history can still be found in its old villas, hotels, and public buildings. Beyond the city center, the landscape changes quickly, giving way to highlands, volcanic craters, and tea plantations. I live near the foothills of Mount Manglayang, where the mountains are always part of the horizon. Whenever I spend a long time away, what I miss most is the quietness. Despite being part of a densely populated region, there are still moments when the pace of life slows down and the surrounding landscape remains part of everyday life. Whenever I return home, I am reminded why questions of memory, landscape, and belonging continue to find their way into my writing.