Laksmi Pamuntjak

May 16, 2023 | wordswithoutborders.org | Sabda Armandio |Laksmi Pamuntjak |Nina Perrotta

Before we parted ways in the courtyard of the Gberia Fotombu Mosque, an Arab traveler who had befriended me over the course of more than 1001 nights gave me the following advice: “Remember, my friend, nothing is so dangerous as stories that have you believe good always triumphs over evil, as they will make you dim-witted and cruel.”He entered the mosque and I continued walking toward Makeni.

May 2, 2023 | wordswithoutborders.org | Laksmi Pamuntjak |Amit Dutta |Tobias Carroll |Isabella Corletto

You’d better not think just because we’re married and middle-aged we’ve stopped fantasizing about other men. That’s what your friends say, and to fit in you laugh casually. But in truth you never fantasize about anyone, including your own husband, nor about sex of any kind—not revenge sex, kinky sex, or casual sex just to feel a warm body and pass the time. You only think about three things. One: Money (that you don’t have). Two: Your only child (who’s already married and lives abroad).

Feb 23, 2023 | wordswithoutborders.org | Iryna Shuvalova |Laksmi Pamuntjak

go escape while you can go escape buy tickets for the last water train which as it subsides reveals curbs pavements the riverside the anatomy of the sinewy city that lies naked and unfamiliar like a man in your bed go—escape while you can take all your belongings everything that’s yours split lips cut knees the cracked jar of a head from which memory slowly seeps and all you can leave just leave behind the evening lights in the windows the beloved exposed throat of the sky the smell of the...