"Morphology of Desire" gives a generous introduction to the full range of writing by the internationally acclaimed Indonesian poet, Dorothea Rosa Herliany, from the 1980s to the present day. Through a distinctive mix of striking imagery and boldness of voice, the poet sets out to destroy many of the common assumptions about everyday life and human relationships. As a woman and a poet, she is doubly an outsider. Her blatant departure, in form as well as content, from the accepted conventions of society (which intensifies through the progression of her work) is remarkable, not only in its personal and political ramifications, but in its emotional and imaginative tenor, as well.

The British poet, Linda France, has praised "the energy and violence (which) run through Dorothea Rosa Herliany's work like a ruptured vein, fragile and vulnerable, but necessary for survival. Underneath this troubled surface, there is so much tenderness and openness ..." The Australian poet, Judith Rodriguez, has suggested: "Herliany's poetry presents texts of exceptional difficulty and exceptional interest. Her work is highly colored, morbid, even shocking, and significant for its metaphorical tours de force and paradoxical glories of unwilling illuminations." Morphology of Desire is a book that will speak to readers who are interested in Indonesia, women's writing, and in poetry in general.

The Indonesian critic, Dami Toda, describes Herliany's writing as revealing "a struggle to understand human experience in all its reality - not as an ideal but as a fact that displays profound suffering and hurt, without, apparently, any hope of redemption." In her introduction to this book, the British poet Linda France writes: "The energy and violence expressed in the title of this collection run through the work like a ruptured vein, fragile and vulnerable, but necessary for survival. Underneath this troubled surface, there is so much tenderness and openness, in shocking contrast to the 'Other', represented by the world of politics and war, that the speaker of the poems is aware she is in danger of annihilation." Another poet, Annie Kantar, is equally emphatic: "Herliany's poetry is intent upon opposing personal and political oppression. She does not attempt to mend, her poetry does not offer a vision of a final Utopia. Instead, it takes the first step towards change by waking, inciting, shattering."