Sitor Situmorang

At 91 years old, Sitor Situmorang physical status not available right now. We will update Sitor Situmorang's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

He started his career as a journalist in North Sumatra at Suara Nasional (1945–1946) and Waspada (1947). He was assigned to Yogyakarta (1947–1948) and later worked for Berita Indonesia and Warta Dunia (1957).

His first poem "Kaliurang" was written in 1948 in the style of Pujangga Baru and published at Siasat, ten years after he translated Saijah dan Adinda by Multatuli. In the same year, he wrote a review of Gema Tanah Air, an anthology compiled by H.B. Jassin.

During 1950 – 1953, he stayed in Amsterdam and Paris to observe European cultures, funded by a scholarship from a Netherlands foundation. His brief stay in Paris influenced some of his works, such as Pertempuran dan Salju di Paris (1956, collection of short stories) and Paris la Nuit (2002, collection of poems).

He published Surat Kertas Hijau (Green Paper Letters) in 1954, a collection of poems, in which he expressed his emotional and intellectual crisis of love and national identity.

This publication established him as a prominent and respected poet.

Since 1950, he was actively involved in cultural polemic, particularly on the shape and direction of Indonesia culture. He was one of African American author Richard Wright's contacts and interlocutors during Wright's trip to Indonesia for the Asian-African Conference in 1955. He became a prominent member of the Institute of National Culture (Lembaga Kebudayaan Nasional /LKN), which was closely tied to Sukarno, the President of Indonesia at the time. In 1967, following the fall of Sukarno in 1965, he was imprisoned and was not released until 1976, without any trial.

He was once taught Indonesian at Leiden University, Netherlands during 1982–1990. On 21 December 2014, he died at the age of 91 at his home in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

Source