Interrogation Records: Poems

by Jeddie Sophronius

The winner of the 2023 Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize, selected by Divya Victor.Breaking the silence and collective amnesia around the Indonesian mass killings of 1965.To this day, there exists a black hole of silence in Indonesia’s socio-political climate in acknowledging the 1965 Indonesian mass killings as what they were-tragedy. Jeddie Sophronius’s Interrogation Records is a rare docupoetry collection that explores and calls into question the ‘official’ narratives revolving around the 1965 massacre.Also known as “The Communist Purge,” the massacre resulted in the slaughter of members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and anyone accused of affiliations to it-many of whom were civilians-by the Indonesian army. Throughout the collection, the voice of Sophronius’s speaker/researcher is quiet but always present, contending with the aftermath of state violence and silencing, in a masterful blend of personal and collective history, memory, and remembering. Sophronius presents both authoritative and artistic language in the same plane, urging us to consider how documents, archives, and testimony may hold affective power and excavate a different truth.Within a climate of silence and erasure, Interrogation Records is a remedy of collective amnesia.

Genres: Poetry

120 pages, Paperback

Published April 2, 2024

About the author

Jeddie Sophronius is the author of the poetry collections Interrogation Records: Poems, Happy Poems and Other Lies, Love & Sambal (The Word Works, 2024), and the chapbook Blood·Letting, a runner-up for Quarterly West's 2022 Chapbook Contest.

A Chinese-Indonesian writer from Jakarta, they received their MFA from the University of Virginia, where they currently serve as a lecturer in English. The recipient of the 2023 Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize, their poems have appeared in The Cincinnati Review, The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Read more of their work at nakedcentaur.com

They currently live and teach in Charlottesville, VA. They divide their time between Indonesia and the United States.

Reviews

[H · Rating 5 out of 5]

well, it’s hard to be impartial about one’s friends—i love this book. i have the first draft of “to kill a chicken” tucked into a journal from five years ago because jeddie brought it into workshop and i was like what the fuck, you can do that with poetry? brought to me a history i’d never heard, of the mass slaughter of communists in indonesia in the 1960s. jeddie doesn’t flinch. his work is careful and unsparing and i feel very honored to know him and to hold this book in my hands.

[LW · Rating 3 out of 5]

“When people can’t kill your ideas they kill you instead.”

unfortunately, I did not find this collection particularly meaningful. as far as poems about communism/colonialism go, I felt that this book was mostly just a repetition of the common themes. sometimes the formatting choices eluded me, but there were quite a few brilliant uses of it: i particularly liked song of a chicken. also, i think V. Annotations was unnecessary and just went off theme?

I think some of my feelings towards this book may be attributed to my lack of knowledge on the communist struggle in Indonesia, so I will read up on it and give this book another try later on. maybe consult my friend too!

(oh also there was a .feast reference! I love that band)

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbing & powerful!

[Skylar Miklus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a vital exploration of a little-known historical event. Sophronius refuses the instinct, both in Indonesia and abroad, to neglect learning about the Indonesian killings of 1965-1966. His approach is painstakingly archival and yet highly personal, in his empathy for and connection to the victims of the massacre. His use of repetitive forms like the pantoum and visual poetics that can be read multiple ways were striking. I expect this stellar documentary poetry collection to stay with me for a long time. It deserves to be widely read and shared.