Acep Zamzam Noor is a poet and painter born in Tasikmalaya, whose childhood was shaped in the environment of the Cipasung Islamic Boarding School, Tasikmalaya. He studied art at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), and received a fellowship from the Italian Government to study and work at the Università Italiana per Stranieri, Perugia. His works often bridge the spirituality of pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), modern aesthetics, and reflections on humanity. He has actively participated in art exhibitions and workshops in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, the Netherlands, and China. He has also taken part in poetry festivals, conferences, workshops, and readings in various countries across Asia and Europe.
His poems are collected in several important anthologies, including Di Luar Kata (Beyond Words, 1996), Jalan Menuju Rumahmu (The Road to Your Home, 2004), Menjadi Penyair Lagi (Becoming a Poet Again, 2007), Bagian dari Kegembiraan (A Part of Joy, 2013), and Berguru Kepada Rindu (Learning from Longing, 2017). He also writes in Sundanese, as seen in Paguneman (Conversation, 2011), which won the 2012 Rancage Literary Award.
Acep has received numerous prestigious awards, including the SEA Write Award (2005) from the Kingdom of Thailand, the Khatulistiwa Literary Award (2006–2007), and the Anugerah Utama Hari Puisi Indonesia (Main Indonesian Poetry Day Award) in 2013 and 2017. His works have been translated into various languages and published in international anthologies such as Death Approaching and Other Poems (Lontar Foundation, 2015) and Ailleurs Des Mots (Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2016). He is recognized as one of the most significant voices in contemporary Indonesian literature and culture. His latest poetry collection is Membaca Lambang (Reading Symbols, Gramedia, 2018).
