Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2025
Seems like a big boast. He says Bali is called a gray zone when it comes to publishing, adding that major publishers are not here, so the festival can be more flexible regarding themes and secure writers who will make an impact.
DeNeefe compares Ubud to Australian festivals and detects “some fear” there.
“From what I can see, there have been a few cases where writers have backed out,” he said. “I think it’s harder for people to say what they think because… all of a sudden you can be attacked on social media.
“So it’s like a war, right? Everyone is against it, but they actually create their own war with their words, with this kind of anger.”
Indonesia is a Muslim country, while Bali consists mostly of Hindus. The island has its own culture, and the festival covers everything from Gaza to writers behind bars to homosexuality in teenage literature.
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The Indonesian government, which sponsors and licenses the event, was unhappy with the planned program in 2015 and threatened to not license it after the festival aimed to hold hearings on mass killings across the country in 1965, when the communist party was brutally suppressed. (Events triggered the novel Australia The Year of Living Dangerously Article by Christopher Koch.)
The festival withdrew all its sessions in 1965, but as a solution, speakers at other sessions spoke about the murders and their impact. “It was a little bit like ‘don’t talk about the war,'” DeNeefe said.
While past speakers have included Nick Cave, Michael Ondaatje and Vikram Seth, this year the Colombian author stood out Ingrid Rojas Contreras, who suffered memory loss after a bicycle accident and later wrote: The Man Who Could Move the Clouds: A Memoir.
The genial Englishman I stood next to at the seafood bar turned out to be Scottish historian William Dalrymple, formerly a fixture in Ubud. Empire The podcast propelled him to rock star status.
However, the truly famous US writers who had previously participated with the support of the US government were unable to participate, victims of US President Donald Trump’s interruptions.
Outside of sessions, the festival organizes boot camps for new writers, workshops, poetry slams, and special events such as bird watching and a 5Rhythms dance meditation with Gina Chick. Next year, author Geraldine Brooks will be on board to accompany DeNeefe on a tour of the remote island of Sumba.
The opening gala of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival was held at a royal palace in Ubud, Bali. Credit: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2025 / Niskala
This year, attendees were able to watch more than 80 main sessions over four days with an international ticket costing about $580 (Indonesians pay less) while enduring torrential heat, torrential rains and cracked pavements before returning to their guesthouses and encountering snails the size of a small mouse on the front step.
Indonesian author Sadie Noni releases her first young adult eco-fantasy novel The Fires of Tanam Alkin Last year, one of the 40-odd books was opened for free on festival stages every year.
The release of his self-published novel in English sparked a wave of interest in schools, and the novel was stocked by major bookstores across the country.
“The festival gives you a forum to talk about your writing,” said Noni (a pseudonym used to protect her employment; look closely and you’ll see that Sadie Noni is an anagram of a highly relevant word).
“[It] “This is very important for Indonesian writers because there are many important Indonesian perspectives and voices, but they do not rise to the regional or global stage.”
This year Noni was back for sessions and perspectives he couldn’t find so easily in Jakarta. “I’d like to write forever. It’s relaxing,” he said. “I would love to retire from my corporate job.”
Late in the festival, Singapore-based Penguin Southeast Asia held a cocktail party where an executive reminded attendees that a meeting at the festival last year led to the publishing house signing Malaysian-Australian author Omar Musa and the publication of his novel. Fierceland In September.
I left with a head full of ideas and, although not exactly a bag full of books (I was flying on Jetstar), a full list of books to read. I also regret not being able to purchase a copy One Day Everyone Will Be Against ThisAn article by Omar El Akkad indignant at the West’s moral indifference to Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza.
El Akkad, an Egyptian-born journalist who now lives in Portland, Oregon, was fascinating in many panels, raging against the empty empathy of Western moral activism and the luxury of our ignorance.
And here El Akkad was next to me during the security screening, startled when I called his name and introduced myself.
Omar El Akkad is at the festival.
We walked and talked, and as we headed to a bookstore, she gave me her email and offered to keep in touch with her and check it out if I was ever in Portland, which I took as a way of getting away from the writers’ book festival circuit. But the email was not returned.
Stephen Brook went to Ubud as a guest of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.
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