Sitor Situmorang

Sitor Situmorang
Situmorang, c. 1955
Born	(1924-10-02)2 October 1924 Harianboho, North Sumatra, Dutch East Indies
Died	21 December 2014(2014-12-21) (aged 90) Apeldoorn, Netherlands
Occupation	poet, writer, journalist, university lector
Language	Indonesian
Nationality	Indonesia Netherlands
Genre	poetry, short story, drama, essay, autobiography
Subject	Batak people, and others
Literary movement	45
Notable works	Surat Kertas Hijau

Sitor Situmorang (2 October 1924 – 21 December 2014) was an Indonesian poet, essayist and writer of short stories. Situmorang was born in Harianboho, North Sumatra, and educated in Jakarta. He worked as a journalist and literary critic in Medan, Yogyakarta and Jakarta for a variety of newspapers and periodicals.^[1]

Sitor was considered by Dutch scholar and critic of Indonesian literature A. Teeuw to be Indonesia's preeminent poet from Angkatan '45 (The Generation of '45) after the decease of Chairil Anwar. "His views were deeply influenced by French existentialism of the early fifties, and his poetic forms, as pointed by Subagio, display remarkable similarities with French symbolism (Subagio Sastrowardojo 1976)."^[2] Despite the European influence he is still deeply rooted in his Batak culture.^[3]