UWRF Book Club: Gustra Adnyana, Community Programs Coordinator

Posted: 13 September 2018 Author: sikuska

With an office bookshelf curving with the works of 160+ speakers set to converge for the UWRF18, Festival staff have no shortage of extraordinary stories and literary magic to devour! So what’s keeping them up at night, page by page, in the lead up to this year’s Festival? In our new series, #UWRFBookClub, we chat to the Festival team about their highlight authors and artists. This week we hear from Gustra Adnyana, our Community Programs Coordinator.


Ivan Lanin – Xenoglosofilia: Kenapa Harus Nginggris?

As someone who has experience teaching Indonesian to foreigners, this book from Ivan was worth reading. It turns out that there are many things we ignore in Indonesian that we use every day, whether consciously or not. Moreover, there is a tendency to use strange or foreign words, especially in an unnatural way. This book is a collection of Ivan‘s writings about Indonesian language that is used daily. Ivan is the famous Indonesian language influencer on Twitter, and is also one of the members of the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (Major Indonesian Dictionary) drafting team. I can’t wait to shake hands with a man who promotes Indonesian language through social media at the Festival.

Dewi Lestari – Aroma Karsa & Musical Storytelling di Festival
Who is not waiting for Dee’s books? Reading the scope of Dee’s writing ranging from short stories to completing her science fiction novel series, waiting for Aroma Karsa and finally reading it is the best part of reading Dee’s novels. For this book, Dee seems to have done research that is unusual, and very deep. Opened with death, this book is alive and worth reading. For those who haven’t read this book, don’t miss Dee and her husband Reza Gunawan’s musical storytelling of her latest novel at the Festival.

Ndaba Mandela – Going to the Mountain 
From his name we certainly know who Ndaba Mandala is the grandson of the legendary Nelson Mandela. I haven’t finished reading his book yet, but I can say that his first book discussed the relationship between a grandson and grandfather. At eleven-years-old Ndaba was invited to live with his grandfather, Nelson Mandela. Before that he had met him only once during a prison visit. From this book, Ndaba relates that he learned a lot from his grandfather even until he was an adult. It is interesting to read this family story and how Ndaba continues the dreams of his grandfather now. I can’t wait to meet him and shake hands at the Festival!
To find out when you can catch these three speakers in action, check out their individual profile pages. To by your Main Program Pass, click here.

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