A daughter’s love, a father’s poetic legacy

The late Malaysian poet Salleh Ben Joned and his daughter Anna pose during a trip to Myanmar in 1979. Anna has established the Salleh Ben Joned Literary Legacy Project that will spearhead a diverse range of initiatives designed to preserve her father's legacy. Photo: Estate of Salleh Ben Joned

Salleh Ben Joned (1941-2020) was known as many things – a prominent Malaysian writer and poet, an outspoken intellectual, a boundary-breaking literary rebel. But to his eldest daughter Anna Salleh, he was "Abah" (father).

Salleh died in October 2020 at the age of 79, but his words continue to leave their mark.