IJHS, e-ISSN 2597-4718, p-ISSN 2597-470X, Vol. 4, No. 2, March 2021, pp. 142-151 142 International Journal of Humanity Studies http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/IJHS Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia IDENTITIES IN EFL CREATIVE WRITING IN INDONESIA * Dewi Widyastuti 1 , Khin Khin Aye 2 , Melinda Kong 3 , Carolyn Beasley 4 and Novita Dewi 5 1,5 Sanata Dharma University, Indonesia 2,3 Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak 4 Swinburne University of Technology Australia *correspondence: ewi@usd.ac.id DOI: 10.24071/ijhs.v4i2.2828 received 3 September 2020; accepted 30 October 2020 Abstract Creative writing is created for aesthetic rather than informative purposes and its creation is greatly influenced by the writers’ background. Thus, how the writers’ perception of themselves or their identities are expressed in the creative writing products. As such, creative writing in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context may offer a space for foreign language learners to express their perceived identities. In this study, an analysis of two short stories written by students of the English Letters Department, Universitas Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, revealed that the students’ perceived identities were used as the resources for their creative writing outputs. In the first short story entitled “Calling Him Back”, through the internal conflicts of the main character, the student writer expressed her doubt as to which identities to claim. In the second short story entitled “Happy Birthday”, the student writer exploits her identities as a literature student when she did a research on novels with Indian background. The data were gathered through document analysis on the two short stories and correspondences with the student writers. These two short stories were evidence that foreign language learners utilized different aspects of their multifaceted identities as the resources for their creative writing outputs. Keywords: identities, perceived identity, creative writing, EFL Introduction Identities are defined based on how a person sees himself/ herself, which is also influenced by how others see him/ her. Identities are responses of individuals towards how society perceive them (Lawler, 2011, pp. 7-8; MacKinnon and Heise, 2010, p. 22). The identities that one claims are related to the interpretation of the individual within certain contexts in society. As a result, every individual has multiple identities instead of a single one (MacKinnon and Heise, 2010, p. 35) depending on his/ her relation to society. Identities can be identified from various markers, such as origins and gender. In language learning, creative writing is one of classroom practices that enables learners to express their identities through their writing product. However, even though studies show the success of creative writing practices for expressing learners’ identities, many are conducted in the first or second language contexts. As stated by Lim (2015, pp. 336-337) that not much attention has been given to creative writing in the second or even third language contexts. In contexts where English is used as a foreign language, creative