"People say that Paris is the city of love, but for Raia, New York deserves the title more. It's impossible not to fall in love with the city like it's almost impossible not to fall in love in the city." New York has become a cinematic icon often featured in movies, not just a setting but also as a character and subject of the story, like Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail, Woody Allen's Annie Hall, and Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. New York is practically one of the most culturally distinctive places in the world that Raia, a writer, chose to flee to this city to chase inspiration after years of not being able to write even a single sentence, imprisoned by a haunting trauma. Raia turned every corner of the city into her "office", walking through the streets of Manhattan, Brooklyn, to Queens, trying to find a story in each person that she encountered, each smile that she saw, each conversation that she heard, in the eyes of strangers on the street and in the subway. Days, weeks, and months passed, the fallen leaves of autumn have now been replaced by snowflakes, and all Raia had was a blank screen and misery. Until she met someone who taught her to see the city, and herself, in a way she never knew before.
Author
IKA NATASSA is an Indonesian author who is also a banker at the largest bank in Indonesia and the founder of LitBox, the first literary startup of its kind in the country, which combines the concept of mystery box and onine promotions for writers. She loves writing since since was a little kid and finished writing her first novel in English at the age of 19. She is best known for writing a series of popular novels focusing on the lives of young bankers in Indonesia. Her debut novel A Very Yuppy Wedding is published in 2007, and she has released six books since: Divortiare (2008), Underground (2010), Antologi Rasa (2011), Twivortiare (2012), dan Twivortiare 2 (2014), and Critical Eleven (2015). A Very Yuppy Wedding is the Editor's Choice of Cosmopolitan Indonesia magazine in 2008, and she was also nominated in the Talented Young Writer category in the prestigious Khatulistiwa Literary Award in the same year. She loves to experiment with writing methods, Twivortiare and Twivortiare 2 are the two novels she wrote entirely on Twitter. Antologi Rasa and Twivortiare are currently being adapted into feature films by two of the most prominent production houses in Indonesia. Natassa is also one of the finalists of Fun Fearless Female of Cosmopolitan Indonesia magazine. In 2008, she was awarded with The Best Change Agent at her company for her active role in corporate culture implementation in the bank, and in 2010 she was awarded for 2010 Best Employee Award. Her success in maintaining a career at the bank whilst pursuing writing as her other passion led to her being awarded awarded as the Women Icon by The Marketeers in 2010. Out of the love of books, in 2013 she founded LitBox, a brand new concept she's in introducing to readers in Indonesia. It's the first literary startup company of its kind, aiming to provide readers with recommended books, to help writers get their writings read by people, and to help publishers introduce new talents to the market. On July 2014, she commenced a social movement campaign to promote the joy of reading called Reading is Sexy, so far supported by Indonesian and regional public figures such as Acha Septriasa, Jason Godfrey, Hamish Daud Wyllie, Karina Salim, Ernest Prakasa, Mouly Surya, and many more. Twitter and Instagram: @ikanatassa LinkedIn: Ika Natassa Personal website: www.ikanatassa.com
