Ayu Utami was born in Bogor, in Indonesia in 1968 and grew up in Jakarta, where she took an Arts degree. When she was a girl, after winning a beauty contest, she refused a career as a model, preferring to study and work in culture. A founding member of the Indonesian Alliance of Independent Journalists, a militant against the censorship of information, Ayu Utami currently works for several cultural reviews and magazines. She has written novels and short stories. Saman, her first novel, was enormously successful and made her an important voice in the cultural world of South-East Asia. 

Resources

• Le donne di Saman - Internazionale
• Le donne di Saman on Puglia
• Le donne di Saman on Terra