Yogyakarta, 18 November 2025 — As part of its ongoing effort to expand creative dialogue within the academic community, the Master’s Program in Literature, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada, held a public lecture titled “Tracing Self-Identity Through Fiction” on Tuesday, 18 November 2025, in Room 204 of the Soegondo Building, FIB UGM. The event featured California-based writer of Vietnamese–Indonesian descent, Mazdo, as the keynote speaker, with Naria Nur Iftitah serving as moderator. Her presence drew enthusiastic attention from students, alumni, and literary researchers eager to explore how fiction can serve as a medium for reflecting identity, personal experience, and socio-cultural dynamics.
In her presentation, Mazdo explained that writing, for her, is a deep dialogue between personal experience, imagination, and the internal questions that continually shape her creative process. She introduced three of her short stories as examples of how she navigates identity through fiction. The first piece she discussed, When the Moths Came (2023), stems from her personal experience. “This story began from my experience living in an apartment where moths were flying everywhere— in the kitchen, around the living room, everywhere. I felt disturbed, but I thought it would be interesting to turn it into a short story,” she explained. From this simple experience, Mazdo crafted a narrative about a married couple dealing with the constant presence of moths, which disrupt their daily life and create emotional distance between them.
Her second story, The Collector (2024), is rooted in her time studying at the Southeast Asia Program building at Cornell University, which was filled with cultural artifacts. She invited the audience to examine how such objects hold long historical traces, including power relations between the United States and Southeast Asian nations. Through the perspective of two curious and innocent children, she demonstrates how Orientalism and colonial traces can be reimagined in fictional space.
Meanwhile, her story Cut Blooms (2025) highlights the relationship between two sisters—shaped by affection, misunderstanding, and an unbreakable emotional bond. Mazdo shared that the inspiration for this work came from her closeness to her own sisters. “When I write, inspiration can come from anywhere, even from my own life experiences. For example, Cut Blooms comes from my personal experience, but I do not write it literally as it happened. Since I write fiction, only small details that truly happened in my life are adapted into the story,” she explained. This statement helped the audience understand that fiction does not require literal adherence to real events, but instead transforms lived experience into a broader emotional structure.
The public lecture also aligned with values of social and cultural sustainability. Through her stories, Mazdo demonstrated that literature can serve as a tool for cultivating empathy, honoring diverse identities, and encouraging reflection on one’s place within larger historical contexts.
The question-and-answer session unfolded warmly and thoughtfully. The first question came from Marisa Santi (Kagama UGM), who asked about the narrative approach Mazdo most frequently uses, whether she prefers the author as an omniscient narrator or allows the characters full autonomy. Responding to this, Mazdo said, “I tend to use the first approach, where the writer serves as the narrator.” She added that this position allows her to guide the fictional world while still giving her characters space to move freely.
The next question was posed by Marsya Kamila, a student of UGM’s Master’s Program in Literature, who asked whether Mazdo plans to write fiction that explicitly addresses migration or identity exploration in the United States, given that her parents migrated there. Mazdo responded enthusiastically: “Yes, because both of my parents come from Vietnam and Indonesia, I think it would be interesting to write fiction that gives voice to our origins and experiences.” Her answer indicates that family history and migration remain enduring sources of inspiration in her creative journey.
The event concluded with great appreciation from participants, who felt they gained new insights into how fiction operates as a tool for self-exploration, historical reading, and reinterpreting lived experience. The Master’s Program in Literature hopes that similar public lectures will continue to provide creative spaces that strengthen literary literacy while fostering cultural awareness and sustainability in society.
[Master’s Program in Literature, Marsya Kamila]
