At the beginning of the twenty first century, a new phenomenon occurred in the literature of Indonesia with the emergence of the chick lit and teen lit genres. There are many young writers, mostly women, who have written novels based on their own experiences. Some of these young female writers are from the pesantren (Islamic boarding school) tradition. These women are following in the footsteps of the previous generation of pesantren writers such as Abidah El-Khaliqy. Chick lit and teen lit writers explore urban lifestyles using daily conversation and ordinary language; in similar fashion young women writers from the pesantren tradition explore their stories and personal experiences while studying and living in pesantren.

However, some critics claim that chick lit and teen lit, as the style of the new generation, cannot be compared with the work of the previous generation. They say that this genre is just following a trend, and that it will change in time. In this paper, I will argue that the new generation of women writers from the pesantren has become a significant group because they have acted as a bridge between those who are from pesantren and those who are outside of tradition, and because in the past Muslim women have rarely achieved any prominence in the literary world.