Ubud Writers & Readers Festival Celebrates Tri Hita Karana
By Michele Cempaka
The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) held on October 14th -19th kicked off its fifth year featuring many A list writers, journalists, and even several renowned religious figures. The theme of ‘Tri Hita Karana’: God Humanity Nature provided a stimulating platform for a variety of discussions about important political and social issues which Indonesia is currently facing.
Conservation Challenges in 21st Century Indonesia, was led by four leading conservation experts who addressed some of the biggest challenges facing Indonesia’s wildlife today and ‘Killing People for Killing People: Writing the Death Sentence’, tackled the ongoing controversy about the three Bali Bombers who are scheduled to be executed in early November and the question of whether the death sentence in Asia is a humane and justified punishment.
There were also many free events presented, such as the ‘Tribute to Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana: Indonesia’s Renaissance Man. His memory was honored with a multimedia program which detailed his extraordinary life and revolutionary ideas. STA, as he is fondly remembered, was a linguist, novelist, poet, philosopher and choreographer who played a fundamental role in the creation of contemporary Indonesian intellectual and artistic life. During his life (1908 – 1994) he helped establish Bahasa Indonesia as the national language.
Other free events included: “Ode to a Martini” a lively event at Naughty Nuri’s featuring Alberto Ruy-Sanchez, Gerrie Lim, Carrie Tiffany, Peter Zilahy and more who served up some fantastic poetry; a film screening of ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ with an introduction by John Berendt and for the first time in the history of UWRF, there was a carnival street party held on Jalan Goutama, with mask-dancing, puppetry, poetry and other readings, along with music and delicious local food.
Several interesting adult writing and cultural workshops were on offer such as ‘Travel Writing with Style’ with Paul Socharzewski, ‘Meditation and Memoir’ with Faith Adiele, ‘Casa Luna Market Tour & Cooking Class’, a full day Batik workshop and much more. The children’s workshops included a one week film making workshop in Indonesian for teenagers, taught by an award-winning local film-maker, ‘Fiction Writing for Children’, a comic cartoon workshop in Indonesian among other engaging workshops for both young and older children. Freeport: the largest copper and gold mining company in Papua, Indonesia was the sponsor for all children’s workshops.
During the four packed days of the UWRF main events were held at both Indus and HSBC Lounge. On Thursday and Friday, ‘The International Publishing Forum’ – the first of its kind to be held in Indonesia, took place at the Neka Art Museum. All the key players in the publishing world were featured, such as writers, translators, editors, printers and publishers who shared their knowledge about the ins and outs of the industry. John McGlynn, of the Lontar Foundation, gave advice to new writers saying that every writer needs to ask herself who she is writing for and tell the publisher why her book is special and why she is the One. He also said that the writer must think about the potential market and give the publisher ideas about how her book fits into this market. Shelly Kenningsberg, an Australian literary agent gave a succinct talk about the role of the literary agent cleverly spelling out the word agent as: a – advocate, g – guardian, e – encourager, n – nagger and t – therapist/friend. She also pointed out that writers have a right to ask their agents what services they offer such as who sells their foreign rights. “Once you get an agent they become the rep for that particular book,” said Shelly Kenningsberg. “It isn’t a good idea to have more than one agent at the same time.” Most agents get 10% - 15% of your royalties, so in essence, they are working for you. The conclusion was that while in all western countries agents are the direct intermediaries between the writer and publisher, in Asia this is not the case because agents have not yet set up shop here. Thus, writers submitting their work in Asia can contact publishers directly, but they should take the necessary steps in the preparation of their manuscripts, i.e. prepare a soft and hard copy, find out the name of the person to address the copy to, send a PDF file first to protect your manuscript, otherwise ideas can be stolen, and include a one page precise which states who you are, the market your manuscript will appeal to and a summary of the plot. Both Shelley Kenningsberg and John McGlynn agreed that when they receive a well prepared manuscript, they are much more likely to take interest in it and give it serious consideration.
On Friday the program picked up momentum with a great discussion by John Berendt and Cameron Forbes on ‘Evoking a Sense of Place’. Berendt has spent a good deal of time in the USA’s Deep South which was the setting for his novel: ‘In the Garden of Good and Evil’. For his second book, ‘The City of Falling Angels’, which was released more than 10 years later, he studied the people and the culture of Venice, Italy. While Cameron Forbes, one of Australia’s most respected foreign correspondents, shared his impressions of Bali which was the evocative setting for his book: ‘Under the Volcano: the Story of Bali’.
‘Fiction: Who Needs It?’ was also a stimulating discussion with short-story writer Charlotte Bacon, winner of the 1998 PEN/Hemingway Award for her short story collection A Private State, along with multi award-winning author Alexis Wright, one of Australia’s renowned indigenous authors and Michael Gerard Bauer, an acclaimed writer of novels for young adults.
Many participants enjoyed the special events programs in the evenings which included ‘From Heaven Lake Cocktails’ at Amandari with Vikram Seth and a very entertaining ‘Mexican Cantina Literary Dinner’ at Casa Luna with the celebrated author, Adriana Williams who wrote Covarrubias in Bali. She presented a multi-media presentation on his life and work as an artist while living in Bali in the 30’s. Alberto Ruy-Sanchez followed with a spirited account of his book: The Secret Gardens of Mogador, which is scheduled to be published in English later this year. Afterwards, a great band played classic Mexican and Latin American songs; it wasn’t long before almost everyone in Casa Luna became enticed by the sultry vocals and rhythmic beats and ended up dancing the night away.
One of the highlights of the festival was a fascinating discussion with Faith Adeile, Thailand’s first black Buddhist nun, Maria van Daalen, a Mambo Asogwe in the tradition of Haitian Voudoo and Gede Prama, a Balinese spiritual guru who utilizes writing as a means for spiritual transformation. All of them shared their diverse and rich spiritual experiences which have been a great source of inspiration for their own writing.
“Look deeply to the works of Kahlil Gibran, Jalalludin Rumi, St. Francis of Asisi, Rabin Dranath Tagore, or the Dalai Lama,” said Gede Prama. “In their journey of writing, we can see an honest spiritual autobiography.”
Gede Prama asserts that there are many lessons to be gained through writing which will help us to become wiser and more aware of the world around us, so that we may move away from our limited egoistic perceptions.
On Sunday, the festival concluded with a wide variety of stimulating discussions which included ‘Writing Creatively about the Environment’, ‘Pluralism and Religious Tolerance in Indonesia’ and ‘Re-interpreting Tri Hita Karana’. Media and writers gathered together in the evening for a closing night party at Antonio Blanco’s.
Many of the writers at the festival felt that this was one of the best writer’s festivals that they had ever attended. Camilla Gibb, author of three critically acclaimed and award winning novels said, “This festival has a remarkable concentration of creative minds. I feel honored that I was asked to be a part of it.”
Rebecca Wright said, “I feel really privileged to be invited to this festival. This is one of the most fabulous writer’s festivals that I have been to throughout the world. To be here is a great honor. There isn’t many writer’s festival that I would want to go to any more, but the Ubud Writer’s Festival is one that I would like to come back to every year; I want to know more about writers from this region, because we don’t hear enough about writers from Asia in Australia.”
With the increasing popularity of the UWRF, it looks like there will be even more A list writers eagerly awaiting invitations to next year’s festival. We can only hope that the tickets won’t sell out too fast.
