Ubud Writers and Readers Festival Podcast Ubud Writers & Readers Festival

To celebrate the birthday of female Indonesian heroine, Raden Adjeng Kartini (1879-1904), who fought for gender equality and the right to education for all, our #UWRF22 Highlight Session will bring you a panel discussion on Women in Fiction.

It is no secret that politicians wield disinformation as a political tool, to drive people apart and control them. For example, the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar was partly incited by Facebook posts. There were even conspiracy theorists who denied that the COVID-19 pandemic existed, which led to people disregarding masks, among other things. Online disinformation seems to influence peoples' public and private views on a range of issues, from politics, public health, the environment, and religion. Join Indonesian-Australian journalist, Tito Ambyo, The Conversation Indonesia Publisher and CEO, Prodita Sabarini, Lowy Institute Researcher, Lydia Khalil, and Human Rights Watch Indonesia Researcher. Andreas Harsono, tackle this issue comprehensively in conversation.

Enjoy another one of our #UWRF22 Highlight Session with Southeast Asian correspondent Michael Vatikiotis who talks about his book Lives Between the Lines, a paean to a time when the Middle East was still a bastion of cosmopolitanism and tolerance.

Adapting a book into screen can be a delicate process. Listen to US-based Singaporean novelist, Kirstin Chen, as well as Indonesian writer, Ahmad Fuadi, and film director, Kamila Andini, as they discuss this issue with interviewer Julia Winterflood. Both Chen and Fuadi have had their books adapted into a TV series and a film respectively, whilst Andini has directed a screen adaptation of a novel.

In this week’s #UWRF22 Highlight Sessions episode, indulge yourself in an emotional journey alongside three international female poets who share their stories about their creative lives with a celebrated Balinese poet. In the conversation is the female Balinese poet, Kadek Sonia Piscayanti, with Venilla Rajaguru from India, Afra Atiq from the United Arab Emirates, and Bejan Matur from Turkey. They explore the power of emotions, as well as how they’ve transmuted their personal life’s pains and pleasures into creativity.

Speculative fiction immerses us in a vision of the world that could become true from a plethora of latent possibilities. Speculative fiction uses storytelling as a tool to educate and influence people's perspectives by creating a world that expands on contemporary society. Renowned authors Laura Jean McKay, Norman Erikson Pasaribu and Sequoia Nagamatsu will speak to the power of speculative fiction to pose the question: what if?