Poets

Afrizal Malna was born in Jakarta in 1957. He studied for a time at the Driyarkara College of Philosophy in Jakarta before dropping out.

In common with the work of Joko Pinurbo, a prominent theme in Afrizal Malna’s poems is the material aspects of urban existence. He is fond of juxtaposing images from daily life in a noisy, almost chaotic, manner, and the titles of some of this poems reflect this: ‘Anthropology of Coca-Cola Cans’, ‘Red Fanta for the Gods’, ‘Migration from the Bathroom’, ‘English Lesson on Body Weight’. He seems keen on finding links between objects in his poems, seeking – in his own words – a “visual grammar of things”. This intimation of secret connections among objects informs much of his poetics.