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Angelique Kasmara

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Angelique Kasmara is a fiction writer, editor and translator born in Bandung, Indonesia. Her family moved to New Zealand as refugees when she was a baby, and she grew up in West Auckland, attending Freyberg Memorial Primary School and St Dominic's Catholic College. She spent two years in the 1990s working in media publishing in Jakarta, returning to New Zealand because of political unrest in Indonesia. In New Zealand she has worked with refugee communities [1] and belongs to a Free West Papua group.[2]

In 2011, her story Asians with Perms was a finalist for the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Asian Short Story Award, judged by Renee Liang, Sue Gee, and Stevan Eldred-Grigg; of 42 entries, she came second.[3] In 2016, Kasmara was awarded the Sir James Wallace Prize at the University of Auckland for best portfolio on the Master of Creative Writing programme.[4] This prize was for the first draft of her novel Isobar Precinct, later a finalist for the $10,000 Michael Gifkins Prize for an unpublished manuscript.[5]

When Isobar Precinct was released by Cuba Press in 2021, Kasmara became one of the first Asian New Zealand women writers to publish a literary novel.[6] Alison Wong, the only Asian New Zealand writer to win the main fiction prize at New Zealand's national book awards, selected an excerpt from Isobar Precinct for the 2021 anthology A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand published by Auckland University Press.[7] In the introduction to that anthology, the first-ever collection of work by Asian New Zealand writers, Wong and co-editor Paula Morris note that among the 75 writers represented, only four were working on novels: Kasmara, Cybonn Ang, Szening Oii and Sherry Zhu.

Isobar Precinct is a work of contemporary speculative fiction grounded in a gritty inner-city Auckland. Kasmara cites Kindred by Octavia Butler and Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang as influences while writing the book.[8] Isobar Precinct has been described as a "sparkling, stylish novel"[9] and "epic, bold and cinematic".[10]

The novel was selected as one of the 100 best books of 2021 by the New Zealand Listener[11] and was also included in the Best Books 2021 selection of the Academy of New Zealand Literature.[12] The novel debuted at number three on the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list.[13]

Isobar Precinct was shortlisted in the Best First Novel category at the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Awards for crime and mystery fiction.[14]

Kasmara has published short fiction on the Newsroom site[15] and another excerpt from Isobar Precinct appeared in the anthology Ko Aotearoa Tātou / We Are New Zealand, published by Otago University Press in 2020.[16] The novel was also featured by Kete Books in their "first chapters" section.[17]

Kasmara was one of six New Zealand writers commissioned by the Nelson Arts Festival to write and record a work of creative nonfiction for their 2021 Writing Home: An Antidote to Feeling Stranded digital series.[18] Two of her short stories, Distant Planet and A Bad Day for a Virgin Sail, were published in Planeta distante Aotearoa: ecos y voces de la larga nube blanca (Ediciones Del Lirio 2022), the first-ever bilingual Mexican anthology of New Zealand short fiction. [19]

Another short story Battle Lines was published in the New Zealand Listener in January 2022. [20]

Kasmara is represented by the High Spot Literary agency.[21]

Bibliography

  • Isobar Precinct (2021)
  • Excerpt from Isobar Precinct in A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa NZ anthology (2021)
  • Excerpt from Isobar Precinct in Ko Aotearoa Tātou anthology (2020)


References

  1. ^ "Refugees hope to change attitudes". The Southland Times; Invercargill, New Zealand [Invercargill, New Zealand]. 21 Feb 20. {{cite web}}: Text "access-date2 April 2023" ignored (help)
  2. ^ McDaid, Amy (13 October 2021). "Portrait: Angelique Kasmara, by Amy McDaid". Newsroom. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  3. ^ "Wellington writer wins NZSA Asian Short Story Award". Creative New Zealand. 22 November 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  4. ^ "Time travel and tattoos in winning manuscript". University of Auckland. 5 December 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  5. ^ "Meet the authors shortlisted for the 2019 Michael Gifkins Prize". Text Publishing. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  6. ^ "Isobar Precinct". Cuba Press. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  7. ^ "A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand". Auckland University Press. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  8. ^ "Q&A with Angelique Kasmara". Read Close. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  9. ^ "Isobar Precinct by Angelique Kasmara". Academy of New Zealand Literature. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  10. ^ "Gritty K' Road: A review of Isobar Precinct". The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  11. ^ "NZ Listener 100 Best Books of 2021". Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  12. ^ "Best books 2021". Academy of New Zealand Literature. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  13. ^ Braunias, Steve (17 December 2021). "The best-selling books at Xmas". Newsroom. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  14. ^ "Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel". Christchurch City Libraries. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  15. ^ "Angelique Kasmara". Newsroom. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  16. ^ Elvy, Michelle; Morris, Paula; Norcliffe, James; Eggleton, David, eds. (October 2020). Ko Aotearoa Tātou / We Are New Zealand. Otago University Press. ISBN 978-1-98-859252-7.
  17. ^ "First Chapters '21: Isobar Precinct". Kete Books. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  18. ^ "Writing Home: An Antidote to Feeling Stranded / Pukapuka Talks, Nelson Arts Festival". Nelson Arts Festival. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  19. ^ "Libro que pondera e impulsa la traducción literaria en México". Noticias. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  20. ^ "Battle lines by Angelique Kasmara". National Library of New Zealand]]. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  21. ^ "High Spot Literary Agency: The Authors". High Spot Literary. Retrieved 8 March 2022.


Category:People educated at St Dominic's Catholic College Category:New Zealand writers

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