Michael Ondaatje and Amitav Ghosh were our leading international guests last year and found the intimate atmosphere of the venues, combined with Balinese hospitality, was the highlight of the event, and the exchange with the Indonesian writers and performers an added bonus.

Our second festival was, in fact, more successful than we imagined, given the bombings of the week before and the good wishes and solidarity generated by all the participants was especially heartwarming. Our program combined literary events with Indonesian dance and performance in magnificent locations, guided tours of markets, temples and rice fields, bi-lingual poetry readings with jazz, children's workshops, Indonesian food - all in the friendly, relaxed, tropical atmosphere of Ubud. My personal focus is Balinese food, so we also incorporated wonderful lunches with discussions of food in some of Ubud's elegant hotels.

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The Festival is one of the activities of Saraswati Foundation for the Arts and is part of the organisation's strategy to improve literacy throughout Indonesia by showcasing the enormous talent of local authors alongside international draw cards. Our long-term strategy is to extend literacy programs throughout the archipelago that will link into the Festival each year, offering exciting incentives to the diverse peoples of Indonesia.
 
Over the years, Ubud has become a national pioneer of tourism and has always attracted visitors of a highly creative nature. Famous actors and artists such as Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, Walter Spies, Barbara Hutton and Miguel Covarrubias wrote about their experiences in Ubud and Bali.

In these troubled years, we now see there is a stronger, leading role that Ubud has to play in order to revive the image of Indonesia and boost a depleted tourist industry. The mere physical setting of Ubud matched with the charm and friendliness of the local people make it the perfect centre for a world-class, cross-cultural event such as the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival which has been held annually since 2004. With the festival actually being born after the first Bali bombings, I can see now, more than ever, we need to continue our journey of healing and promoting peace through literature and cross-cultural exchange.
 
Over a three thousand International and Indonesian attendances were recorded at the 2005 festival and the full program can still be seen at www.ubudwritersfestival.com .
 
Invited  international guests this year include Vikram Seth, Peter Carey, Chitra Banarjee Divakaruni, Marjane Satrapi, Ziauddin Sadar, Rohinton Mistry, Tim Winton, Samuel Wagon Watson, Nury Vittachi, Rana Dasgupta, Simon Winchester and Maddhur Jaffrey.

 

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Janet de Neefe is a Bali resident and author of the book, ?Fragrant Rice', published by Harper Collins in Australia. Janet is also the Director of the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, planned to take place this year from September 30 - October 3, 2006.