interrogation records: poems

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’ 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’ 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.