Ubud to run as Kembali 2020

The organisers of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (UWRF) have announced the annual festival will combine with the Ubud Food Festival in 2020 to create Kembali 2020, a festival that will run online from 29 October to 8 November with ‘limited on the ground sessions for a local audience’.

In statement, the organisers said the ‘free and donation-based festival’ would feature over 70 sessions in a digital format, both pre-recorded and live streamed, with yet-to-be-announced live sessions that aim to revitalise the local economy. The live sessions will follow Covid-19 protocols and will only proceed with government approval.

‘We want to stimulate the island’s economy and tourism sector, since Bali is Indonesia’s hardest-hit region, but safety is and always will be our first priority,’ said director Janet DeNeefe.

Writers due to appear at the festival include Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians (A&U), Edwidge Danticat, author of 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award–winning novel Everything Inside (riverrun), Barack Obama’s sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, author of children’s book Ladder to the Moon (Walker Books), and Australian author and broadcaster Richard Fidler.

Eka Kurniawan, the first Indonesian writer to be nominated for a Man Booker International Prize, will appear alongside fellow Indonesian author Dee Lestari in a session supported by Writing WA.

For further details see the UWRF website.

Category: Local news