Devi Asmarani

Devi started out in journalism at The Jakarta Post in 1996, during

some of the most interesting and intense time in Indonesia’s history. She continued much of her career in the newspapers business as a correspondent for Singapore – based newspaper The Straits Times and won a few awards with her coverage

of political and sectarian conflicts, terrorism, natural disasters and environmental crisis. In 1998, she quit full-time journalism to have a peace of mind (and so she can be less cynical about life), and became a freelance writer and a yoga instructor. The two things were finally combined when she published her book ‘Yoga untuk Semua’ (Gramedia Pustaka Utama) in 2011.

In 2013, she co-founded the feminist webmagazine Magdalene.co, where she is now its chief editor. The website still cannot afford to pay her, so she still largely earns her living as a political columnist for Malay Mail Online (a Malaysia-based English-language news site), and a consultant for development agencies like the World Bank, UNICEF and other UN agencies, and international NGOs. She has a few social media accounts (one too many to manage), but you can find her as @dasmaran on Twitter.