2015 Emerging Indonesian Writers Overview

In keeping with our mission to showcase Indonesian literature on a world stage, each year we welcome submissions from emerging Indonesian writers who would like to take part in Ubud Writers & Readers Festival and appear in our annual anthology, with the support of UWRF and Hivos.

This year, we received an extraordinary 592 applications, up from 529 in 2014. These applicants hailed from 168 cities across 25 provinces, spanning the whole width and breadth of Indonesia. The majority applied using poetry, short stories or novels as their preferred mode of expression.

The 15 successful candidates will be selected by an independent curatorial board and will be chosen for the quality, breadth and consistency of their written achievements, as well as their dedication to Indonesian literary communities. Past recipients have gone onto having their works translated for the Frankfurt Book Fair and to work successfully in the industry.