Ubud Early Birds

From Ubud Writers' and Readers' Festival director Janet de Neefe:

Greetings,

There is a buzz in the air as the residents of Ubud start gearing up for the 4th Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. But don't think the chatter ends in our little village. Apparently the literati-glitterati, from as far away as London, have been talking up our next Festival. They must know that this year promises to be even more dynamic, stimulating and magical than ever.

For those who are willing to take a leap of faith and trust that this year's program will be better than ever, Early Bird Specials are available on the 4-Day Festival Pass. Purchase a 4-Day Pass from now until when the program is released on the 13 August and receive 10% off [that's a AUD$30 discount!]. With less than a month to take advantage of this special offer we encourage you to throw caution to the wind and head to the Booking page on our website to get your ticket or for more information.

Although the full Festival program won't be released until mid-August, we have released our Adult Workshop and Feature Events Programs to sate your curiosity. Tickets for these are on sale now and we recommend that you book early.

Once again, our fabulous Feature Events will take transport you into the worlds of some of our most fascinating Festival guests, whose writing and experiences are as diverse as their countries of origin. Set in some of Ubud's most elegant hotels, these unforgettable feasts of flavour, mind and soul are always quick to sell out. So book now!

It's no wonder that the Festival was named among the world's top six literary events! Join us and see what all the talk is about. You wont be disappointed!

This year will see more Malaysian participation in the festival than ever before with our Tan Twan Eng, Farish Noor, Kam Raslan and playwright Ann Lee taking part.

But some of the other invitees have a strong Malaysian connection.

There's Catherine Lim, a Malaysian-born author resident in Singapore, and Madeleine Thien, an Canadian author with Malaysian-Chinese parents whose novel Simple Recipes was a regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize finalist.

Then there's a couple of Hong Kong based authors I know because I included their stories in the Silverfish volume I edited (Collateral Damage) : Xu Xi, and Mohammad Cohen.

I hope that there will be more Malaysians attending the festival too, because, despite what Mr. Raman says, you really aren't going to feel out of place.

Check out the guestlist to know who else will be coming.

(I'm sure I've heard of this Kiran Desai somewhere ...)