Joesoef Isak
Encyclopedia
Joesoef Isak was an Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n publisher, translator, and left-wing intellectual. He was an advocate of free speech during President Suharto's authoritarian New Order administration
New Order (Indonesia)
The New Order is the term coined by former Indonesian President Suharto to characterize his regime as he came to power in 1966. Suharto used this term to contrast his rule with that of his predecessor, Sukarno...

, and was imprisoned from 1967 to 1977 without trial. In 1980, he helped found and direct the publishing house Hasta Mitra, publisher of Pramoedya A. Toer's Buru quartet
Buru Quartet
The Buru Quartet is a literary tetralogy written by Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer. It is composed of the novels This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass.-External links:...

.

Biography

Isak was born in Petojo, Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

, on 15 July 1928. His father was a post-office employee who came from the Minangkabau region of West Sumatra
West Sumatra
West Sumatra is a province of Indonesia. It lies on the west coast of the island Sumatra. It borders the provinces of North Sumatra to the north, Riau and Jambi to the east, and Bengkulu to the southeast. It includes the Mentawai Islands off the coast...

.

Educated in the Dutch colonial system, Isak did not speak Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

 as a young man, but later became a proponent of the language.

In 2005, Isak was the inaugural recipient of the Australian PEN Keneally Award for his work.

Isak died on 15 August 2009 at the age of 81. He is buried at Jeruk Purut Cemetery
Jeruk Purut Cemetery
-Layout:Jeruk Purut covers a total area of . It is located in South Jakarta.Along with Kalibata Heroes Cemetery and Karet Bivak and Menteng Pulo public cemeteries, Jeruk Purut is one of the better maintained cemeteries in Jakarta.-History:...

 in South Jakarta
South Jakarta
South Jakarta is a city within Jakarta Special District, Indonesia. It had a population of 2,057,080 at the 2010 Census, and is the third most populous among the five cities of Jakarta, after East Jakarta and West Jakarta...

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