I am absolutely overjoyed to be a recipient of a 2026 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant to translate author Dea Anugrah's unique and utterly fantastic novel Suspicious Days (originally published by Indonesian publisher Marjin Kiri as Hari-Hari Yang Mencurigakan). As per PEN’s announcement:
“Suspicious Days is a sharp, funny, and self-aware novel that follows a young, directionless writer in Yogyakarta who stumbles into a literary mystery–and a violent quest for revenge–while searching for a missing poet. In a voice that shifts effortlessly between irreverent humor, cultural critique, and genuine yearning, Dea Anugrah offers a portrait of Indonesia’s contemporary literary and political landscape, filtered through the eyes of a disaffected youth. Annie Tucker’s clear and assured translation captures the novel’s fast-paced blend of autofiction, metafiction, and cultural commentary without losing its specificity to Indonesia’s literary world. With extensive experience translating contemporary Indonesian literature, Tucker brings both deep linguistic skill and cultural understanding to this project. Her work delivers the full force of Anugrah’s voice to English-language readers, introducing a fresh and fearless talent in contemporary Indonesian fiction.”
This award feels doubly meaningful to me, as it was a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant award that launched me on my translation career a decade ago and what a rich and wild ride it has been translating ever since! I’m eager as well to learn more about the other worthy projects and their translators, who will be translating from (among other languages) Wolof, Kven, Hungarian and Brazilian Portuguese.