The final day of the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival turned attention towards what readers would carry home. On Sunday, October 25, conversations about grief, solidarity, children’s literature and cultural memory connected international perspectives with Indonesia’s evolving literary landscape.
The fourth main-programme day concluded the festival’s 23rd edition, which featured more than 150 writers, thinkers, journalists and poets, with over 100 conversations and panel discussions across the festival. Its theme, Samarasā: Awareness. Empathy. Action., provided a thread linking personal stories with wider responsibilities.
Opening Doors Between Languages
At the Agung Stage, the morning programme paired Tiffany Tsao with Kirsti Melville for a conversation about But Won’t I Miss Me and Budi Darma. Bringing Tsao’s fiction and translation work into the same session highlighted two connected ways of reaching readers: creating new worlds and helping existing ones cross linguistic borders.
In a July 2025 interview with the Booker Prizes, Tsao explained her approach to translating Norman Erikson Pasaribu: “I wanted to bring Norman’s voice, or at least its essence, as best I could, to an anglophone readership.” Her emphasis on preserving a writer’s voice offered useful context for the festival’s exchanges between Indonesian and international literature.
Later, “The Dynamics of Modern Translation” brought questions of cultural sensitivity and artificial intelligence into the programme at Bar Luna. Meanwhile, “Transmedia Storytelling,” featuring Andreas Kurniawan, Dee Lestari and Henry Manampiring, explored how stories could move between books, music, film and digital platforms.
Together, these sessions examined how literature could reach new audiences while retaining the particular voices and experiences that gave it meaning.
Making Room for Difficult Stories
Several Sunday sessions approached experiences that resisted easy explanation. “The Architecture of Grief” brought Brian Khrisna, Peter Godwin and Witi Ihimaera into a conversation moderated by Jewel Topsfield. Its focus was writing through loss and finding meaning in absence.
“Life and Death at Intersections,” with Rachel Clarke, W. Mustika and Georgina Godwin, placed medical knowledge alongside cultural and spiritual understandings of mortality. Later, “How Do We Write the Unbearable?” considered the language available to writers confronting trauma, war and profound loss.
The programme also connected personal testimony with public responsibility. “Solidarity as Cross-Cultural Exchange” explored collective action across borders, while “Stories That Spark Change” linked journalism, research and activism with environmental concerns.
Growing Indonesia’s Next Literary Voices
Indonesian writing remained central to the final-day programme. “Indonesian Children’s Literature Nowadays” brought Djokolelono and Reda Gaudiamo together with moderator Cyntha Hariadi to examine how stories for younger readers had changed across generations.
Elsewhere, Yusi Avianto Pareanom’s two-hour short-story masterclass offered practical work on narrative structure, authorial voice, feedback and preparing manuscripts for publication. The session included finalists from the festival’s 2026 Emerging Writers Programme.
The wider initiative gave these encounters a publishing dimension. The festival’s Stories From the Islands anthology brought together ten emerging Indonesian writers selected through the programme, connecting the discovery of new talent with opportunities for readers to encounter their work.
Sunday’s main-programme grid contained 21 sessions across three venues: Agung Stage, Indus Restaurant and Valley Stage. Within that schedule, “Anthologies for Archives” considered how collections could introduce emerging voices while preserving a record of literary life. “Old Stories for the New Generation” approached a related question: how inherited narratives and Indigenous knowledge could remain present in contemporary reading.
Finding Bali Between the Pages
The day’s activities also kept the festival connected to its host community. An early-morning cultural walk introduced Balinese understandings of life and death, while a workshop at Puri Kantor offered an introduction to writing Aksara Bali on lontar palm leaves.
These experiences placed literary expression within living traditions. Writing was encountered as a physical practice, shaped by materials, language and the knowledge passed between generations.
The book-launch programme extended that connection. Bali Harmony presented 40 illustrations inspired by the philosophy of Tri Hita Karana, while Night Before Nyepi paired Emma Titley’s writing with 17 images by Balinese artist Agus Nuramantha.
Other launches widened the geographical and thematic range. Sania Rasyid’s Pingkan Matindas drew on North Sulawesi’s cultural inheritance, while Henry Manampiring’s Penasaran explored unsettling possibilities in an AI-shaped world. The programme placed regional memory alongside contemporary uncertainty, showing the breadth of subjects available to Indonesian storytelling.
Beyond the main venues, “Wings, Light, and Stories from the Fireflies Village” connected literary conversation with a visit to Rumah Konservasi Kunang-Kunang. Its setting brought environmental observation into the festival’s wider exploration of awareness and care.
Keeping Literary Spaces Open
One of the final afternoon sessions turned the discussion towards the institutions supporting these encounters. “The Need for Literary and Cultural Institutions Today” featured Janet DeNeefe and Sanjoy K. Roy, moderated by Gill Westaway, and addressed the pressures facing spaces for cultural exchange.
The question was especially relevant at the close of a festival built around conversations between countries, languages and generations. Such exchanges depended on organisers, translators, publishers, venues and audiences continuing their work beyond a single week.
“Empathy builds the bridges we keep failing to build ourselves,” DeNeefe had said in the festival’s programme announcement. Sunday’s range of discussions gave that ambition a practical expression through encounters with unfamiliar stories and shared concerns.
The programme ended with a closing-night gathering at Taman Baca, scheduled from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., combining readings, performances and dance. Ubud’s final chapter left an invitation behind: to keep reading across borders, support new voices and continue the conversations after the festival stages fell quiet.
