Ubud Writers & Readers Festival on BaliSpirit.com

Last year it was Michael Ondaatje, Amitav Ghosh, Xanana Gusmao, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, Putu Wijaya and Shaun Tan exploring "Between Worlds". This year, another exciting line-up of authors from various parts of the world will explore the theme: Desa-Kala-Patra: Place-Time-Identity.

October now marks the month in Bali that is destined to become known around the world for one of South-East Asia's greatest literary events. The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival has all the trimmings of a world-class writers festival and is well on its way to becoming an equivalent of a FLIP – the celebrated Brazilian Literary Festival, in our own sumptuous backyard.

This year, the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival promises to charm you once more with four days of literary excitement in one of the world's most magical settings. Sit back and enjoy inspiring discussions, conversations, readings and lunches overlooking a never-ending view of rice fields and coconut trees with readers and writers from all corners of the globe.

Our theme Desa-Kala-Patra: Time-Place-Identity will address the ties that bind us to place, ancestry and identity in modern times. Selected from the 2005 festival, these are the issues that writers from all over the world repeatedly discussed. Desa-Kala-Patra is part of a basic life principle for the Balinese people.

This year, the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival will bring a more diverse group of authors to our shores as we celebrate writers from Asia and beyond. In an effort to embrace our Pacific neighbours, we will be including a line-up from Fiji to New Zealand, presenting dynamic poets and performers from this part of the world.

Award-winning Sri Lankan writers will share their stories alongside Indonesian and Australian writers in a cross-cultural cocktail of unforgettable exchanges. This year we are also proud to showcase the brave new voices of Iran, with a line-up of dynamic women writers who are breaking grounds by dealing with social issues and cultural identity. And once again, Indian writers will steal the show with their stylish saris and charm, in a series of vibrant discussions about love, life, food and literature.

Of course, some old favourites will return, due to popular demand, but there will be plenty of new faces brimming with new ideas and enthusiasm for our theme. Days of discussion will drift into nights of dazzling, and often hilarious entertainment as we offer you the best of Balinese hospitality. Literary lunches in Ubud's elegant hotels will, once again, run alongside a stimulating series of how-to workshops.

It all adds up to a tropical heat wave of inspiration and excitement.
There is no other writer's festival like it!

See you in October. – Janet De Neefe, Festival Director

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Spotlight on 2006 Festival Guests

Samuel Wagan Watson was born in Brisbane in 1972 of Irish, German and Aboriginal (Bundjalung and Birri Gubba) ancestry. His father and grandfather were both activists. His great-grandfather was sold into bondage to a white station owner in central Queensland. He worked in ring-barking camps until he had enough money to hire a lawyer who had him freed from the Aboriginal Protection Act, one of the first Aboriginal people to do so.

Wagan Watson's father enrolled at the University of Queensland in 1971, the only indigenous student amongst thousands of white students. He is now a lecturer in black Australian literature and was a central organiser of the People's March on the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting [CHOGM].

Samuel Wagan Watson himself is a Brisbane-based writer and Public Art Project Manager. He has been a salesman, public relations officer, fraud investigator, graphic artist, labourer, law clerk, film industry technician, and an actor. Samuel describes his influences in writing as Nick Cave, Tom Waites, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, and Robert Adamson. His other influences are his father, the novelist, Sam Watson and his mother, who is a specialist teacher.

Samuel Wagan Watson's first collection of poetry was called Of muse, meandering and midnight and it won the David Unaipon Award for emerging Indigenous writers. It also received a Highly Commended in both the Anne Elder Awards and the 2000 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Australian Culture. Wagan Watson then released the collections Itinerant Blues and Hotel Bone.

His most recent collection Smoke-Encrypted Whispers was named the 2005 Book of the Year in Australia's leading literary award, the NSW Premier's Literary Award.

Smoke Encrypted Whispers, published in June 2004, is a stunning collection of exhilarating road poems, urban songlines and ancestral ties that have become the hallmarks of this popular young poet. The volume contains poems from all of Samuel's publications, as well as a selection of new, previously unpublished work.

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Elmo Jayawardena was born and educated in Sri Lanka. He is the founder / president of AFLAC International (Association for Lighting a Candle), a humanitarian organisation working to alleviate poverty in Sri Lanka. Sam's Story, his first novel, won the Gratiaen Prize 2001. His second novel, The Last Kingdom of Sinhalay was the winner of State Literary Award in 2005.

Sam's Story is about Sri Lanka. It is narrated by Sam, an illiterate houseboy born in a village too remote for maps, brought to work in a town house where he finds momentary happiness in a life muddied by difficult days and painful moments. It is about the tears he shed and the days he wished he could forget, of the people he loved and the others he loved to hate. The story reaches across Sri Lanka and gathers into its fold many characters: Piya, Sam's childhood friend; Kaluwa, the son of a rich Mudalali; Leandro, the Tamil cook; Lucky, the barber and Sam's two brothers, Jaya and Madiya who join the army to fight the separatists.

This is the story of a country gasping for fresh air in the midst of an unending civil war and the chronic trauma it creates in its people, afflicting every life in every race, leaving none untouched.

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Travel

Great Travel Packages from Australia and New Zealand

Garuda Orient Holidays will be putting together Festival packages for booklovers flying to the Festival from Australia and New Zealand. Prices start from just $430 pp share twin, including return Bali airport/Ubud transfers, 4 nights accommodation and Festival Registration Fee.

For enquiries and a copy of Garuda Indonesia's "Bali on any budget" brochure, see your local travel agent or call Garuda Indonesia on 1300 365 331. www.balionanybudget.com.au

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Positions Vacant

Call For Volunteers – Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, 2006

Without volunteers, there would be no ubud Writers & Readers Festival! Each year the festival recruits around 200 volunteers who take up a wide range of roles both prior to and during the Festival. The Festival is now welcoming applications/enquires from people interested in volunteering for the 2006 Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.

The Festival program will commence on September 28 and conclude on October 3, 2006. The lead up to the big week involves many, many months of planning and 'on the ground' work involving people with varied expertise in many fields. Each year volunteers are needed to help with translation, administration, PR and media, accounting, facilitating the children's program, organising book launches and feature events, ticket selling, transport, emceeing and much, much more. If you have a 'skill/talent' that you think we could use during this period, please contact us as soon as possible. New Volunteers please email me at peta@ubudwritersfestival.com to arrange a meeting. All past Volunteers will be notified via email with a date for a 'get together meeting' to canvas your interest in committing to another year with us.

Looking forward to meeting new volunteers and catching up with 'old' ones...

Peta Hanslow
Coordinator of Volunteers
Human Resource Manager 2006

Finley Smith
Festival Manager
2006 Ubud Writers & Readers Festival
t: +62 361 971 605
e: finley@ubudwritersfestival.com
www.ubudwritersfestival.com