Ubud Writers & Readers Festival: Recent Episodes
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival
Southeast Asia’s most celebrated literary and artistic event, Ubud Writers & Readers Festival brings together the world’s leading authors, artists, thinkers and performers for five days of big ideas and extraordinary stories. In our podcast series, listen in to stories as told from the UWRF stage.
As an island that relies heavily on tourism, the COVID-19 crisis has led to Bali’s most challenging period in recent memory. Our panelists have spent decades in Indonesia’s tourism industry …
The post KEMBALI20 Podcast | When the World Stopped Traveling appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Pelatih somatik dan instruktur bela diri, Made Janur Yasa, menemukan cara yang praktis dan efektif untuk mendorong warga mengelola sampahnya. Bagaimana? Dengan menukarnya dengan beras sumbangan. Seperti inilah terobosan pengelolaan …
The post KEMBALI20 Podcast | Made Janur Yasa: From Rubbish to Rice appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
In Sea People, Christina Thompson explores the fascinating story of Polynesia’s ancient voyagers, as well as the sailors, linguists, archaeologists, folklorists, biologists, and geographers who have puzzled over this history …
The post KEMBALI20 Podcast | Christina Thompson: Sea People: the Puzzle of Polynesia appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Man of Contradictions, the first English-language biography of Jokowi, argues that the president embodies the fundamental contradictions of modern Indonesia. He is caught between democracy and authoritarianism, openness and protectionism, …
The post KEMBALI20 Podcast | Ben Bland: Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from an Indigenous perspective. His new book Sand Talk provides a template for living. It’s about how lines, symbols, and shapes can help us …
The post KEMBALI20 Podcast | Tyson Yunkaporta: Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Edwidge Danticat’s latest book of short stories, Everything Inside, is set in Port-au-Prince, Miami, and beyond. It reflects on community, family, and love, and how people come to terms with death, …
The post KEMBALI20 Podcast | Edwidge Danticat: Everything Inside appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Independent investigative journalist, Febriana Firdaus, is a regular contributor to The Guardian, covering topics from COVID-19 to the Black Lives Matter movement in West Papua. Her works have appeared in …
The post KEMBALI20 Podcast | Febriana Firdaus: Investigative Reporting in Indonesia appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
“My stories come from a very unconscious place. I don’t premeditate them, I don’t know what’s going to happen in them.” There’s no one like Etgar Keret. His stories take …
The post KEMBALI20 Podcast | Etgar Keret: Anything but Ordinary appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Join James Oseland to hear about his travels in search of the world’s best restaurants, street food stalls, and home cooks. James is the author and editor of World Food, …
The post KEMBALI20 Podcast | James Oseland: In Search of the Cradle of Flavor appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
The Guardian called Intan Paramaditha’s debut novel The Wandering an “ingenious choose-your-own-adventure challenge, [which is] at least five books in one.” Originally published in Indonesian as Gentayangan and translated into English by Stephen J. …
The post KEMBALI20 Podcast| Intan Paramaditha: The Wandering appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Indonesia, 1998. With the fall of Suharto’s 32-year autocratic regime following years of political turmoil and violence, the ‘Reformation Era’ was ushered in. Heaped upon it were promises of freedom, …
The post UWRF Podcast Rewind | UWRF18 Twenty Years Later appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
“Sink it” became a national catchphrase after Indonesia’s maverick (now former) Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries fulfilled her threat to sink any foreign boats found illegally fishing in Indonesian …
The post UWRF Podcast Rewind | UWRF18 Susi Pudjiastuti: Sink It appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Each year UWRF puts a call out to emerging writers across the archipelago: send us your stories. In 2019, we received 1,253 submissions, the highest number since the Emerging Writers …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Indonesian Emerging Writers 2019 appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Around 9 million Indonesians live and work overseas, along with countless descendants of Indonesian migrants. Our panel of orang Indonesia living in diaspora recounted their personal experiences of what it means to …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Indonesian, Elsewhere appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Indonesian comic superheroes have long been in the stranglehold of foreign character translations. But the Marvel Cinematic Universe is creating demand for local superheroes, along with Gundala, a recent film based …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Homegrown Heroes appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
The dust has far from settled on #MeToo, “a movement that represents probably the greatest and most conspicuous collaboration of women since the suffragettes”, according to Sam George-Allen. With the …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Life After #MeToo appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Poppy tears, opium, heroin, fentanyl: poppy latex is a commodity without rival. Acclaimed cultural historian Lucy Inglis took us on an epic journey from ancient Mesopotamia to modern America and …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Lucy Inglis: Milk of Paradise appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Andreas Harsono has covered Indonesia for Human Rights Watch since 2008. His new book Race, Islam and Power: Ethnic and Religious Violence in Post-Suharto Indonesia is the result of his 15-year project …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Andreas Harsono: Race, Islam and Power appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
“We’re fractured nations because we’re not reading or translating each other,” said Malaysian author Bernice Chauly during the UWRF17 panel on the 50th anniversary of ASEAN. Join our group of …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | The Role of the Arts in Cultural Diplomacy appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
The domestic, the interior and the personal have traditionally been relegated to the realm of women’s writing, which in recent years has been dismissed as too small to attract significant …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Domestic Spaces appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
“In this day and age recipes are abundant… I love that I can learn a little bit more, whether it’s political, philosophical, historical, or personal.” For Yotam Ottolenghi, food is …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Yotam Ottolenghi: Simple appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Born into a Shia Muslim family that migrated to the US after fleeing the Iranian Revolution, Reza Aslan converted to Christianity as a teen and then returned to Islam. He …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Reza Aslan: God: A Human History appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
The way we consume stories is rapidly changing, and the popularity of graphic novels, memoirs and other types of visual storytelling for adult audiences proves images can capture enthralling narratives. …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Moving Pictures appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Indonesia has 150 million internet users and 800,000 hoax-distributing websites, according to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. In a system swimming with fake news, what is the relationship …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Weapons of Mass Distortion appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
From gentle mockery to caustic sarcasm, there’s a victim at the butt of most good laughs. Must comedy be cruel to work, and does that mean comedians have a free …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | The Karma of Comedy appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
It’s been 26 years since Irvine Welsh gave the world Trainspotting, the book deemed by Rebel Inc. “the best book ever written by man or woman” that went on to define a …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Irvine Welsh: Choose Life appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Award-winning hip-hop artist Akala’s bestselling Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire is a searing polemic on race and class in the British Empire. With a life and outlook shaped …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Akala: Natives appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Memoirs are no longer seen as the self-indulgent domain of those at the end of long and accomplished lives: millennials around the world are writing fresh and compelling stories, tackling …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Millennial Memoir appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Crafting the perfect sentence in one’s mother tongue is hard enough, without the complications that working in a second language brings. But that hasn’t stopped this panel. Not content to …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Multilingual Wordsmiths appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
With a vast domestic market and burgeoning production power, Indonesia’s film industry has huge potential. In recent times, Indonesian films and industry professionals have enjoyed rising international prominence. Could Indonesian …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Indonesian Cinema as Soft Power appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
After a childhood in care, 17-year-old Norman Greenwood saw his birth certificate for the first time: his name was Lemn Sissay, he was British-Ethiopian, and his mother had never stopped …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Lemn Sissay: My Name is Why appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Speculative fiction has lurked in the shadows of the literary scene for years while realism hogged the limelight. Now, as the natural and political spheres crumble around us, speculative fiction’s …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Is All Contemporary Fiction Speculative Fiction? appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
In a 2019 Entertainment Weekly interview, Amy Tan reflected on the 30 years since her groundbreaking novel The Joy Luck Club was published, commenting on the remarkable difference in Asian representation in literature and …
The post UWRF19 Podcast | Asia Pacific Futures on the Page, Stage and Screen appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Faster! Better! More! Productivity and personal achievement are dominant cultural values in 2018, but do we have to buy in? Our panel asks you to put down your phone, put …
The post UWRF18 The World We Create | In Praise of Slow appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
“Writing poetry is like having a conversation with our higher self,” says American poet Jericho Brown. They hail from different generations but the lives of these four writers are shaped …
The post UWRF18 In Their Own Words | Higher Self appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
No religion has received as many headlines or as much misunderstanding in recent years as Islam. Our panelists study the faith in its many manifestations, from everyday lives in Indonesia …
The post UWRF18 This Indonesian Moment | Evolving Islam appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Award-winning author and journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race sparked a new and frank conversation about systemic racism. From eradicated black history to the inextricable …
The post UWRF18 In Conversation | Reni Eddo-Lodge appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
You get one chance to make a first impression, and these authors did so with a splash! They’ll take us on the journey from unpublished hopeful to bestseller lists, film …
The post In Their Own Words // Dazzling Debuts appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
It’s often remarked that Balinese women are among the hardest working in the world. A patriarchal society and a seemingly endless cycle of temple rituals and communal obligations have imposed …
The post Tanah Airku // Breaking Boundaries appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
In an archipelago of 17,000 islands, artistic expression takes a breathtaking array of forms. Join us for a taste of some of the most exciting dance, literature and visual art …
The post Tanah Airku // An Archipelago of Art appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Sophal Ear escaped the Khmer Rouge due to his mother’s unflinching determination and moved to the US at the age of ten. He has overcome both genocide and poverty to …
The post In-Conversation // Sophal Ear: Escaping the Khmer Rouge appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Anaesthesia is a modern miracle. But how much do we really know about what happens to us on the operating table? Is pain still pain if we are not awake …
The post In-Conversation: Kate Cole-Adams: Anesthesia appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Did that Minion just say terima kasih? French-Indonesian animated film director and voice actor Pierre Coffin is the man behind the little yellow characters from the Despicable Me franchise, emblazoned …
The post In-Conversation // Pierre Coffin: Movies and Minions appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
“I’ve always tried to think of poetry as an active ingredient in the language…” From a life-long passion for rock music to his post as Oxford Professor of Poetry, poet, …
The post In-Conversation // Simon Armitage: From Punk to Poet appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Described by the Observer Food Monthly as “a happy mix of scholarly and gluttonous”, Fuchsia Dunlop’s stories and recipes take us deep into the culinary heart of China. Join a …
The post In-Conversation // Fuchsia Dunlop: Land of Plenty appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
With Wild Swans, Jung Chang illuminated the lives of three generations of women in China. Former rocket factory worker Lijia Zhang’s Lotus, inspired by her grandmother’s experiences, tells the story …
The post In-Conversation // Jung Chang: Writing Modern China appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Iconic literary figure Sutardji once turned Indonesia’s time-worn poetry traditions upside down after proclaiming the liberation of words from their shackles of socially-enforced meanings. In an age of Twitwars and …
The post In-Conversation // Sutardji Calzoum Bachri: The Chanting Poet appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
“Nowadays everyone’s got to appear to be doing something,” notes Robert Dessaix. We’re working longer hours, consuming more than ever, and treat being busy as a status symbol. In a …
The post In-Conversation // Robert Dessaix: The Pleasures of Leisure appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Having studied, worked and traveled in Southeast Asia as a journalist and peace mediator for more than three decades, Michael Vatikiotis peers beyond brand new shopping malls and shiny glass …
The post In-Conversation // Michael Vatikiotis: Blood & Silk appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Héctor Abad’s depictions of contemporary Colombian society have won readers around the world. In Oblivion, the memoir of his father’s life and murder by Colombian paramilitaries, personal events are the …
The post In-Conversation // Héctor Abad: First Person appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
He’s the wit and wickedness behind the beloved Inspector Rebus and Detective Malcolm Fox, read in 22 languages around the world. Celebrating 30 years of Rebus, Ian Rankin brought a …
The post In-Conversation // Ian Rankin: A Life of Crime appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
A tireless advocate for the rights of women and minorities in her home of Malaysia, Marina Mahathir is admired (and occasionally admonished) for telling it straight. She joins Michael Vatikiotis, …
The post In Conversation // Marina Mahathir: Telling it Straight appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
A living legend of Indonesian literature, Nh. Dini will reveal the flame that sustained her prolific writing career spanning more than five decades. Listen in as she narrates her colorful …
The post In-Conversation // Nh. Dini: A Living Literary Legend appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Spanning decades and diasporas, Madeleine Thien’s stories “remind us what fiction can do” (New Statesman). She takes the UWRF stage to discuss the Booker-shortlisted Do Not Say We Have Nothing, …
The post In-Conversation // Madeleine Thien: Do Not Say We Have Nothing appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
From busloads of tourists and bustling beaches, to Balinese Hinduism and a global voice, Bali is a place that knows how to adapt. Join this high-spirited session for a look …
The post Evolving Indonesia // Paradise Revisited appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
For nearly 1,000 years, Balinese Hinduism – a unique blend of animism, ancestral worship, and Indian philosophies – has given the island splendid rituals and inter-faith harmony. What makes Balinese …
The post Evolving Indonesia // Mystical Bali appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Rich with local lore, legendary beasts and mythical monsters, listen in as writers from the far corners of the Indonesian archipelago explore the culture of their regions and its impact …
The post Evolving Indonesia // Island Lore appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Overwhelmed by English and dominated by Bahasa, many say the Balinese language has reached the brink of extinction. Listen in as these speakers argue the case for Balinese, and why …
The post Evolving Indonesia // Mother Tongue appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Should we extend our compassion to all beings? Join extraodinary activists and authors for a conversation on compassion for the natural world, the next moves in sustainability, and how to …
The post Tat Tvam Asi // Mother Nature appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Last year, we explored the 17,000 islands of imagination. Set sail again beyond Jakarta and Bali with these translators and curators to hear how the Festival’s Emerging Writers Program has …
The post Evolving Indonesia // Reading the Archipelago appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Forget blackboards and musty textbooks, strap in for a super-charged history lesson where we consider how (and why) literature can keep us from repeating the mistakes of history. Featuring Juan …
The post Tat Tvam Asi // The Past is Present appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Youth culture. Politics. Feminism. These ambitious directors and auteurs use their medium to explore controversial themes and tackle taboo topics. Explore the vital world of Indonesian cinema. Featuring: Slamet Rahardjo, …
The post Evolving Indonesia // Camera Obscura appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
When natural disasters strike, we’re all in it together. Hear from two artists whose work with the HANDs! project is uniting young people from across Asia and equipping the next …
The post Tat Tvam Asi // Side by Side appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
“If you had met my father you would never, not for an instant, have thought he was an assassin.” One of Australia’s best-loved performers takes the UWRF stage with Michael …
The post In Conversation // Magda Szubanski: Reckoning appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
In 2011, investigative journalist Suki Kim went undercover in North Korea. Posing as a missionary and a teacher, she taught English to the 19-year-old sons of North Korea’s ruling class. …
The post In Conversation // Suki Kim: Undercover in North Korea appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Hear from one of the most promising Indonesian authors of this decade: Eka Kurniawan has earned international recognition with his critically-acclaimed works – most notably Beauty is a Wound and …
The post In Conversation // Eka Kurniawan: Beyond Beauty is a Wound appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Searing, insightful, unflinching: Hanya Yanagihara’s novel A Little Life has made an indelible impression on readers the world over. She joins Kirsti Melville for a conversation on friendship, art, and …
The post In Conversation // Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Get to know the language of Indonesia in all its richness and complexity. What are the things it is only possible to say in Indonesian? A group of writers and …
The post Evolving Indonesia // Dalam Bahasa Indonesia appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
From brave dreams to bold action and big results, these four activists working in diverse fields – youth advocacy, human trafficking, climate change, deforestation – come together to chart the …
The post Tat Tvam Asi // Being the Change appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Facebook, Twitter and Pokemon Go! – Indonesia is addicted to the screen. Listen in as these best-selling authors and an indie publisher talk the trials and tribulations of bringing literature …
The post Evolving Indonesia // Screen Addicts appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Connection, compassion, and creativity. For those on the inside, writing can offer the chance to tell their own story, and to imagine a world beyond the bars. Featuring Diana Greentree, …
The post Tat Tvam Asi // Prison and the Pen appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Activism isn’t all protest marches, chants and online petitions. Musicians, writers and artists come together to share how they’re using art to change hearts and minds. Featuring Diana Greentree, The …
The post Tat Tvam Asi // Make Art Not War appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Indonesian cinema has taken the pulse of a nation, a visual tribute to its struggles and triumphs. These influential filmmakers discuss how Indonesian film has shaped and narrated the evolution …
The post Evolving Indonesia // Cinematic Indonesia appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Widely recognised as the greatest writer in the Spanish language, Miguel de Cervantes’ influence is felt across many art forms to this day. Indonesian pianist Ananda Sukarlan and Mexican novelist …
The post Between the Covers // La Lengua de Cervantes appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Lustworthy, lurid, eye-catching or cryptic: a book’s design can make or break its reception. An author, a book designer and a publisher reveal just what goes on to create the …
The post Between the Covers // The Look of the Book appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
In an age of pop-ups, listicles and clickbait, have we forgotten how to read? Does the act demand courage, patience and curiosity? From Asterix to Aristotle, prize-winning philosopher Damon Young …
The post In-Conversation Series // Damon Young appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Joan Didion famously wrote, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Four writers unpack the way stories help us navigate the world and understand each other, and what the …
The post The Writing Life // In Order to Live appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
From Hindu epics to the palm leaf texts, these writers encourage us to dive deep and discover the mystic, sensual and revelatory qualities of our ancient works, and show just …
The post Between the Covers // Ancient Texts appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Listen in as our Festival guests debate their latest literary loves, lusts, and loathes, and the books they can’t wait to get their hands on. Join us for this celebration …
The post Between the Covers // UWRF Book Club appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
What draws writers to write about the darker aspects of human experience – violence, manipulation, torture? What keeps us reading? These writers reveal how they go there, and why it’s …
The post The Writing Life // Darkness and Light appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
The promise of the open road and the far horizon… global nomad or armchair adventurer, we all know the call of distant lands. Hop on board as these travel writers …
The post Between the Covers // Open Road Open Book appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
One of the thrills of reading is slipping inside a new character’s skin. What’s it like for the author, especially if that character’s life is vastly different to their own? …
The post The Writing Life // In their Skin appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Writing about real events and people requires walking a tightrope of truth and imagination. From a spark of inspiration to an in-depth biography, get the skinny on the rewards, responsibilities …
The post The Writing Life // Writing Real Lives appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
“Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” – …
The post Between the Covers // The Power of Story appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Works in translation are hotter than ever, with readers hungry to discover new voices. Get the lowdown on how a book makes its way into other languages, the effect it …
The post Between the Covers // Found in Translation appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Sometimes history can be more astounding than fiction. These writers discuss the struggle to sift fact from myth, and balance the tension between story and truth, without losing the plot! …
The post The Writing Life // Fact or Fiction appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
What brought you here today? Are you a seasoned festival fiend or an intrepid first-timer? A group of festival-makers from around the world, including the UWRF’s Founder and Director Janet …
The post Between the Covers // The Secret Life of Festivals appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
“It’s no problem for me to write for children. We have a lot in common.” – EB White. From a writer’s most adoring audience to their toughest critics, four festival …
The post The Writing Life // The Child Inside appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Poetry makes language strange, and – in doing so – remakes the world so we may encounter it anew. Hear these poets on the art of language, and explore why …
The post Between the Covers // The Spell of Poetry appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
What does the writing life look like today? From bedroom to boardroom, co-working to collaborative space, day job to portfolio career, these writers explore what works, what doesn’t, and what’s …
The post The Writing Life // How We Write appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
“Talent is only 10%. The rest is obsession,” says poet Selima Hill. For these writers, obsession – be it historical, cultural, or physical – has played a defining role. What …
The post The Writing Life // It Chooses You appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
High-gloss, seductively-styled, and jam-packed with drool-inducing recipes you’re possibly never going to attempt: cookbooks are more covetable than ever. Author Valli Little and designer Evi O. join forces to take …
The post Between the Covers // Cooking the Books appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Exile, statelessness, displacement… these experiences have created stories of immense loss, but also of great resilience and insight into human grace and dignity. Join writers from Turkey, Tibet and China …
The post Ideas in Focus // Beyond Exile appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
It makes up 60% of the human body and covers nearly 70% of the earth’s surface. With rising sea levels, increasing temperatures and changing weather patterns, water shapes our world …
The post Ideas in Focus // The Tipping Point appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Shorelines, state lines, party lines and cultural chasms – the forces that divide us can sometimes feel stronger than those that unite us. In a time of mass migration and …
The post Ideas in Focus // Thinking Without Borders appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
It’s easy to say, but harder to do. In 2015, Mpho Tutu told us: “forgiveness is a practice”. Join three authors for an intimate and personal exploration of the legacy …
The post Ideas in Focus // Forgiveness is a Practice appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
What does home mean? Is it a place? Is it where the heart is? How does home change when we choose to leave a place, versus being forced to leave? …
The post Ideas in Focus // Home appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
English has always been an adaptive lingua franca. As our communications grow ever more global, the English language continues its dynamic evolution. Writers from Indonesia, Singapore, and the USA, take …
The post Ideas in Focus // Evolving English appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Home is common ground. We’re born to it, walk upon it, and to be displaced can equal homelessness or statelessness. Join a powerful discussion of body, geography, and connection, with …
The post Ideas in Focus // The Ground Beneath our Feet appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Migration can transform lives and define nations in both anticipated and unexpected ways. How has a migrant identity shaped these writers’ lives both on and off the page? How has …
The post Ideas in Focus // I, Migrant appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
In a digital age of immediate and intimate connectivity, is our world view really expanding? Is our capacity for empathy and understanding on the rise? Or are we simply stuck …
The post Ideas in Focus // Inside the Echo Chamber appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
A rapid-fire war of words, ideas and party lines: the US election sends voters to the polls a week after the Festival ends. Our writers debate the controversies, calamities, and …
The post Ideas in Focus // Making America Great Again? appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Will we remember 2016 as the year everything changed? What effect will global events such as Brexit, the US election, and increased acts of terrorism have on Southeast Asia? Is …
The post Ideas in Focus // The View from Here appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Is there any bigger question than the question of self? What shapes our identity? Writers from Indonesia, Singapore, Pakistan and Turkey debate how ‘self’ comes into being – from nature …
The post Ideas in Focus // The Self and I appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
From Airbnb to Google Maps: has the internet robbed travel of its romance and adventure? Has the great unknown been replaced by TripAdvisor and daily Facebook updates? Pack your bag …
The post Ideas in Focus // Tethered Travel appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Terrorism. War. Political turbulence. Climate change. Environmental devastation. When the news is too much to bear, fiction can help us to grapple with the big issues. Featuring Kamila Shamsie, Paul …
The post Ideas in Focus // Shining a Light appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Between speech and silence: activist Anastasia Lin, and human rights lawyer Teng Biao, consider the current state of free expression in China. Where is it heading, what is lost, and …
The post Ideas in Focus // China, Outspoken appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
With extreme acts hitting the headlines with frightening regularity, our panel asks what drives individuals, communities and movements to extreme action? How can we encounter it, and counter it? Featuring: …
The post Ideas in Focus // At the Extreme appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
From military muscle in the South China Sea to protectionist policies, relations between hard-hitting global superpowers US and China have a significant impact on Southeast Asia. Our commentators take stock, …
The post Ideas in Focus // USA in Asia appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
Single-by-choice, salary-independent and devoted to solo living, the single woman occupies a more powerful social, political, and economic position than ever before. What does the landscape look like across different …
The post Ideas in Focus // All the Single Ladies appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.