Semarang │ May 18, 2017 Faculty of Foreign Language and Culture at Universitas Muhammadiyah Semarang (Unimus) in partnership with Balai Bahasa Jawa Tengah (Central Java Language Center) held a three-day Workshop on Indonesian Literature (Bengkel Sastra Indonesia) in the Integrated Campus of Unimus from May 16 to 18, 2017. The event aimed at improving the students’ culture of literacy, primarily in creating short stories. Chairperson of the committee was Yunita Nugraheni, M.Hum and there were 40 students of various faculties at Unimus who were participating in the event.
Activities on the first day began with the opening ceremony with speeches from Drs. Pardi, M.Hum., as head of Balai Bahasa Jawa Tengah, and Yesika Maya Ocktarani, M.Hum. The following event was an orientation on literacy by Dr. Djoko Setyo Hartono (a lecturer at Unimus), S. Prasetyo Utomo (a famous short story writer) and Saroni Asikin (a man of letters and senior journalist. “On the first day, students were asked to write a short story that would be reviewed by Saroni Asikin on the second day. On the final day, the students did peer-reviews on short stories that have been written. In the event, a short story written by Sri Winda Utami entitled “Sepi itu Dirimu (Deserted is You)” was selected by Saroni Asikin as the best short story.
“This Bengkel Sastra, stated Yunita, requires students to be creative in the creation, idea development as well as editing of a short story, which is is good and correct. Desi Ari Pressanti from Balai Bahasa Jawa Tengah also gave some reviews on the students’ works. As a follow up, the students were obliged to revise their stories based on reviews that have been given by the experts. The works are planned to be published in form of an anthology of short stories by Balai Bahasa Jawa Tengah. Through the event, the students were expected to be able to develop ideas and create novel works in accordance with being active in literacy.
Reported by the Technical Unit of Public Relations and Protocol.
