In The Empty Places

An exciting and diverse collection of new work by renowned and award-winning writers and artists from around the world, some translated into English for the first time.

The Bantuan Coffee Foundation provides safe-houses and scholarships for the victims of child prostitution in Indonesia. www.bantuancoffee.org

The outrage and the tragedy of child prostitution, although not a new phenomenon, has in the last thirty years become a global issue. Ease of travel and communication, and an array of motivating factors have turned children into saleable commodities. The Bantuan Coffee Foundation was formed to help pick up the pieces by offering the victims a way out. Safe houses and education scholarships get the children off the street and give them a chance at a safer and better future. For Bantuan to do its job, it needs funding and awareness. That’s where we came in.

Child prostitution today demands a global response and we wanted In The Empty Places to reflect that. We reached out to the world and were humbled by the response. Contributions by award-winning writers and visual artists from Malaysia to Bolivia, from Zimbabwe to Indonesia poured in. Most stories and artworks are published here for the first time; some are being made available to English readers for the first time.

The contributors were free to produce anything they wanted yet as the pieces rolled in, themes quickly recurred. Human relationships are central to stories by Rodrigo Hasbún and Chiew-Siah Tei, while Kirsty Logan, and Anneliese Mackintosh look at human fragility and strength. Rodge Glass, Angelo R. Lacuesta and Ahmed Yulden Erwin focus on political corruption and those fighting back. Tendai Huchu and Simon Sylvester confront illegal immigration and economic slavery. Lakambini A. Sitoy, Kushinga Kambarami and Iain Maloney look at grief while Chris Beckett and Suhayl Saadi tackle spirituality and religion from radical angles. Naema Tahir and Flora Qian explore issues of identity.

Our graphic artists introduce similar themes in their work. Mayra Martins Redin and Esteban Tapella expose the difficult balance between the environment and human activity. Esteban goes deeper, explaining how this balance reflects on the construction of identities. Monica Metsers’ pencil drawings take us into a sub-conscious fantasy realm, making us question the boundaries of reality and identity. Finally, Tomi Müller brings to the forefront the struggling feelings of children, regarding love and the arbitrariness between paucity and excess.

This book is the expression of a collective desire to do something to help make life a little better for the children in Indonesia the Bantuan Coffee Foundation are helping. By buying this book, by reading it and perhaps telling others about it, you too are contributing to this work. For that, we don’t have thanks enough.