THE ANNUAL $5000 ONLY POEMS PRIZE for…
POET OF THE YEAR
Arumandhira is a Blasian queer writer born and raised in Indonesia (now surviving in Los Angeles). She has received support from Kundiman and Storyknife Writers Retreat as a poetry fellow. Her works have appeared in Honey Literary, The Boiler, The Offing, Asian American's Writer's Workshop, Split This Rock, BRUISER Mag, and SWWIM.
Bapak has shown you how men do not need to build. Their kingdoms are erected by the lips of women around them. And in this world that turns like a struck cheek, it's why the most broken of men are gods.
To me, excavating these histories—especially those outside of the popular imagination—is both a privilege and an act of resistance. It's my way of carving out a space of power, one that can withstand erasure.