Bio

Naning Scheid is a wordsmith, metaphrast, scholar, and thespian whose work moves fluidly between poetry, translation, scholarship, and performance. Born in Indonesia and based in Brussels, she inhabits the space where languages, cultures, and histories intersect, crafting literary and performative experiences that transform meaning across borders.

Her poetry and translations explore the resonance of classical and contemporary texts, bringing Indonesian and French literary traditions into dialogue. Through her translations of La Fontaine, Hugo, Baudelaire, Rimbaud and other canonical voices, she reimagines melancholy, beauty, and wit in ways that speak to a global audience while remaining rooted in the specificity of each language.

As a scholar of comparative literature, she examines the intertextual and transcultural currents that shape literary imagination, illuminating the subtle ways stories, myths, and poetics migrate across time and place. Her research on transcultural intertextuality and transnational literary reception has been published internationally, contributing to ongoing conversations in contemporary literary studies.

On stage, Naning breathes life into text, performing the cadences and emotions of literature in Indonesian, Javanese, and French. Her artful presence transforms words into living encounters, inviting audiences to feel the pulse of language across cultures.

Her work invites collaboration and conversation with writers, scholars, translators, and performers worldwide. Whether through mentorship, lectures, workshops, or joint projects, she seeks to create spaces where literature, translation, and performance coalesce — connecting minds and hearts across cultures.

Her major publications include Melankolia – Poems in Five Languages (2020), the novella Miss Gawky (2020), Puisi Fabel (2021) — a selection of translations from Fables by Jean de La Fontaine — and the critical essay collection Poetry as Autobiography (2023). She also published Bunga-Bunga Iblis (2024), an Indonesian translation of Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal, and her forthcoming works include Reading Wing Kardjo in the Trajectory of French Literature and the reference book Transcultural Intertextuality Analysis: Theory and Practice, which develops a model for intercultural literary analysis between Indonesian and other literatures.

Her poem “Pada Pemilu” was awarded Best Poem at the 7th Anniversary of Bawaslu 2025.
Her short story “Cakar Dubuk Tutul” was selected among Kompas’s Best Short Stories of 2021, and “Bulan Biru di Laut Flores” received the Readers’ Choice Award in the 2021 Literary Tourism Competition organized by Yayasan Pustaka Obor and Rayakultura.
Her essay “Madame Bovary: The Death of Romanticism in Flaubert’s Hands” was nominated for Best Literary Essay at Sastra Media Awards 2022.