Festival Staff

Festival Co-Director – Janet De Neefe
The creator of the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, Janet De Neefe, has lived in Bali for over 20 years. She is the founder of two restaurants in Ubud, Casa Luna and Indus, as well as the Casa Luna Cooking School which is attended by hundreds of visitors each year, all eager to learn the secrets of Bali’s spicy cuisine. Her memoir/cookbook Fragrant Rice (HarperCollins 2003) is an account of her personal journey on this most exotic of islands, interspersed with mouth-watering Balinese recipes and insights into Balinese traditions. Janet has been nominated for the Nita B. Kibble Literary Award for women writers.

Festival Co-Director – Sarah Tooth
Sarah has a background in Indonesian Studies, festival management, and arts programming. Originally from South Australia, Sarah studied at the Universitas Gadjah Mada, and taught at the Charles Darwin University. For the last 5 years she has worked as an arts producer for the Australia Network, the ABC’s international television service. Sarah moved to Bali with her family to join the festival team at the beginning of 2009.

Sponsorship Manager – Roberto Aria Putra
Born in Jakarta, Roberto has a Communications Degree from Atmajaya University He has worked with arts and cultural organisations since 1997, and ran his own event management company for 7 years. He has been with the Festival since 2008. He is also a photographer, musician and lover of all things vintage.

Community Development Manager - Kadek Purnami
Kadek Purnami is a Balinese girl originally from Ubud, and has worked in public relations, media, art galleries and event organizing since 2003. Kadek Purnami joined the Yayasan Mudra Swari Saraswati as a Secretary in 2004, and has been a part of the Festival team since then, becoming the Community Development Manager in 2005. When she’s not working, she loves to write and paint.

Indonesian Program Coordinator – Wayan Juniartha
Wayan is the Bali’s chief correspondent of The Jakarta Post and writes a weekly column for the local Bali Post. His book Bungklang Bungkling mocks the paradoxes of modern Bali.

Festival Manager – Nanda Arya Wijaya
Nanda Arya Wijaya was born in 1978 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He has a background in English Linguistics and spent 5 years working  in film and arts festival management. For the last 3 years he has taught film production management and cinematography at HelloMotion Inc. He joined the UWRF team in March 2009.

Marketing & Communication Officer - Andy Ewing
Andy Ewing has worked on numerous writers festivals over the past few years. Last year he was Festival Manager at the NT Writers’ Festival, as well as Project Officer for the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. Andy has a background in the visual arts and various community arts projects.

Project Assistant – Pande Putu Setiawan
Pande was born in Ubud Bali. He is a one of a kind typical Balinese boy. Came from an average Balinese family, now he could reach his master degree in marketing from a top University in Indonesia and abroad. His latest work experience includes  working for the United Nations – in the World Food Programme. He has travelled to Canada, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Vientiane-Laos. The first of his tetra-logy books  Samsara: ‘Kita Semua adalah Monyet’ is now on the bookshelf.

Office Accounts - Wayan Widiatnini

Office Assistant – Putra Wira Adnyana
Gustra, that is how we call him everyday, is the youngest staff in this Festival. Born and grown up in Ubud. A smiley and kind young Balinese boy. His biggest dream is travel around the world. While working in Yayasan Mudra Swari Saraswati, he is also still continuing his study in English Literature at one of the Private College in Bali. He  joined  the UWRF since February 2009. In addition, he is also one of the staff in Kumara Creativity Center.

Festival Advisory Committee

Ayip [Matamera]
Ayip is President and Director of Matamera Communications.

Diana Darling
Diana Darling is a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of The Painted Alphabet: a novel based on a Balinese tale (1992) and a former editor-in-chief of Latitudes magazine, and has published numerous essays on Balinese society. She was born in the United States and moved to Europe in 1973, where she lived in Italy and Paris carrying out independent work as a sculptor. She has lived in Bali since 1980 and is married to A.A. Alit Ardi of Ubud. She is currently working on a Miscellany of Bali and a novel about the history of tourism in Bali.

Jamie James
Jamie James left his post as a staff critic in 1999 and moved to Bali to concentrate on writing about Asia. Since then, he has published 2 novels, Andrew & Joey: a Tale of Bali and The Java Man. In 2008 he published his 7th book The Snake Charmer, a biography of the American herpetologist Joe Slowinski.

Jan Merrills
Jan is from the UK and originally trained in International Hotel Management before going on to do an honours degree in Law. She then spent many years as a Senior Manager with Price Waterhouse specializing in tax law and Human Resources. Prior to moving to South East Asia in 2001 she was an Associate with a UK based law firm.

John O’Sullivan
John O’Sullivan was born in Sligo, Ireland in 1962. His first book, Under the Blazing Sun, is a collection of poetry, photographs and prose that came together during his years in Cairo. His new book, Odd Poems and Slogans, is a volume of poems and slogans spawned in 30 countries over the last eight years.

Although John has been writing poetry since he was 12 and collecting artwork since he was 16, it wasn’t until he was in his mid-30s that he woke up and decided to paint. He has since exhibited his artwork in Norway, London, Cairo, Indonesia and Ireland. All proceeds go to homeless children or orphanages in the country of sale. He is preparing for his upcoming exhibition, a collaboration of works with his friend, talented Balinese artist Ida Bagus Indra in October 2009.

For every painting the peripatetic Irishman writes a poem. He claims, “Words and images are natural bed-partners. As kids we make a huge connection between the two, but as we get older, reality beats it out of us. I like to reconnect words and images.”

Liv Gussing
Liv is the General Manager of Amandari Resort, Ubud.

Sarita Newson

Sarita has lived in Bali for 36 years, in which time she has learned both Balinese and Indonesian, and worked as a writer, translator, editor and publisher. She now specializes in assisting authors to self-publish, as well as creating a series of educational multilingual children’s books with an environmental theme, through her company, Saritaksu Editions. Sari means “essence” and Taksu is a Balinese concept for “creative inspiration”. Sarita and Saritaksu have supported UWRF from its inception.

International Advisors :
Deepika Shetty, Indian journalist and author. Producer with Channels NewsAsia
Nury Vittachi, Hong Kong author and columnist. Co-founder of the Hong Kong Literary Festival