Bio

Dera Menra Sijabat is a seasoned award winning journalist from Indonesia.

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Since December 2016 until July 2024, Dera had been working with Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, Politiken, Asahi Shimbun and The Jakarta Post.

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He covered wide range of issues in Indonesia including politics, environment, culture, religion, human rights and society.

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He won three international journalism awards: the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment and Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) Awards for International Reporting, both on The Hidden Toll of Electric Cars for The Washington Post; and Ann Cottrell Free Animal Reporting Award on A Gruesome Betrayal for Los Angeles Times.

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In 2023, he was a mentee for the SKUP (the Norwegian foundation for investigative reporting) Masterclass during the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is also a 2024 Asia Journalism Fellow.

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Dera will be pursuing his MFA in nonfiction creative writing at Columbia University in New York City from September 2024 with the support of the Indonesian government’s scholarship LPDP.

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For his MFA thesis, he’ll be writing his first book about transgenerational trauma. On social media, he’s also known as a mental health advocate where he actively shares stories to build awareness on mental health and illness. His contents garner millions of views.