Subagio Sastrowardoyo

And Death Grows More Intimate: The Poetry of Subagio Sastrowardoyo

Subagio Sastrowardoyo (1 February 1924 - 18 July 1995) was a poet, short-story writer, essayist, and literary critic. Born in Madiun, East Java, he first studied at Gadjah Mada University, where he then taught in the Faculty of Letters from 1958 to 1961. Thereafter, he studied at Cornell University and then at Yale University from where he graduated in 1963 with an MA in English Literature. He spent several years teaching in Australia, from 1974 to 1981. After returning to Jakarta, he served for many years as the director of Balai Pustaka, the state-owned publishing house. Subagio's debut as a writer came early with the publication of Simphoni (Symphony), a collection of poems, in 1957. Following his studies in the United States, he published a collection of poems entitled Saldju (Snow) in 1966. Critical recognition of his work first came in 1963 from the literary journal Sastra for his short story "Kejantanan di Sumbing" which was followed in 1966 by an award from Horison magazine for his poem "Dan Kematian Makin Akrab." The Indonesian government awarded him its highest prize in the field of culture (Anugerah Seni) in 1970 and he was named a recepient of the SEA Write Award from the Thai government in 1991.