Ubud releases 2018 festival program

Wednesday, 15 August 2018 Books+Publishing

The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) has released the main program for its 2018 festival, which will run from 24-28 October in Ubud, Indonesia.

Among the newly announced international guests are Africa Rising Foundation co-founder Ndaba Mandela (also the grandson of Nelson Mandela); American memoirist Clemantine Wamariya; Indian novelist Anuradha Roy; and Australian writers Jane Caro, Clementine Ford and Jill Stark.

Some of Southeast Asia’s leading activists, journalists and political commentators programmed in this year’s festival include Sidney Jones, an expert on ‘violent extremism, insurgencies and ethnic conflict in Southeast Asia’; Noor Huda Ismail, founder of the Institute for International Peace Building; and Barbara Demick, former Beijing and Seoul bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times and author of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (Fourth Estate).

They join other international guests first announced in July, including British writer Hanif Kureishi; Pakistani memoirist and novelist Fatima Bhutto; Indian poet, novelist and dancer Tishani Doshi; British author Geoff Dyer; and Australian authors Kim Scott and Gillian Triggs.

Indonesian guests include authors Dewi Lestari, Leila S Chudori and Aan Mansur; and investigative journalists Febriana Firdaus and Endy Bayuni.

The festival, now in its 15th year, features over 160 speakers from 30 countries.

Festival founder and director Janet DeNeefe said of the program: ‘In 2018, we’re not only celebrating our 15th year as Southeast Asia’s leading festival of words and ideas. We’re celebrating the fact that Indonesia is home to world class literature, art, film and food—and finally the world is taking notice.’

To see the program, click here.

Category: Festivals Local news