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, …
Read more
“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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
“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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
“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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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. …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
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 …
Read more
The COVID-19 global pandemic has taken over 2020, impacted us all, whether it’s economically, socially, physically, or mentally. After postponing highly-awaited international events, Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) and …
Pandemi global COVID-19 telah mengambil alih tahun 2020, memengaruhi banyak aspek baik secara ekonomi, sosial, fisik, atau mental. Setelah harus menunda kedua acara internasional yang sangat ditunggu-tunggu, Ubud Writers & …
Sister festival:
