The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) has revealed its full main programme: over 100 events weaving human stories, bringing warm and empathetic narratives to take action and make a change for the individual and the collective.

In its 23rd year, Southeast Asia's biggest and most meaningful literary Festival returns to Ubud, Bali's cultural heartland, between 21 and 25 October, bringing together over 150 of Indonesia's and the region's most exciting authors, thinkers, journalists and poets for more than 100 conversations and panel discussions, exploring the transformative power of storytelling under this year's theme, Samarasā: Awareness. Empathy. Action.

"In a world this fractured, awareness gives us clarity when everything feels blurred by noise. Empathy builds the bridges we keep failing to build ourselves," said Founder and Director Janet DeNeefe. "And action is what turns that feeling into something that moves the needle. That spirit runs through every corner of this year's programme: the author talks, panel discussions, literary lunches, and late-night spoken word galas that spill into the small hours."

That awareness begins close to home, in one of the programme's most striking in-conversations. Tari Lang shares her memoir My Neighbour, The Dictator, recounting life as a fourteen-year-old girl in 1965, when General Suharto's coup saw her parents imprisoned without trial, a history that shaped her into the leader she is today. She reflects on how that history continues to shape who she is.

That same courage to speak runs through a thread confronting truth, censorship and free expression. Defying Silence Together brings investigative journalist Dandhy Laksono together with novelist Randa Abdel-Fattah, whose Adelaide Writers' Week disinvitation sparked mass withdrawals. Two further panels dig deeper into what speaking out really costs: Forbidden Stories: Banned Media and Magazines, with human rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis, and The Violence of Culture, with Michael Shaikh and Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes.

If silence and repression are threats to the human voice, technology is another that the Festival addresses head-on. As artificial intelligence reshapes how stories are made and told, two panels examine its growing role in the world: Burning Books, Accepting Artifice: Man or Machine, with Brian Lang and Dee Lestari, and Reimagining the World: Nation-state and Technology, both featuring Richard King alongside British novelist Rana Dasgupta.

Beyond who controls the narrative is who gets to tell it at all. Here, the Festival looks past borders, championing solidarity over division: The Bandung Conference of Writers unites voices from across the Pan-Asian-African world, echoing the 1955 Bandung Conference's legacy of alliance, while Literature: A Mirror to the World brings together 2006 Man Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai,and Palestinian author Adania Shibli to question the forces that decide our place in society.

Women's voices and the body also take centre stage this year, both too often overlooked. Women Who Write Women, featuring South African-Australian academic, activist and author Sisonke Msimang and Balinese writer Oka Rusmini among others, and The Domestic is Political, with Amanda Echanis, take this on directly, while Translating Women is Translating Change, with 2022 International Booker Prize longlistee Tiffany Tsao, traces how women's stories survive across languages.

And beneath all of it runs the Festival's most human thread: grief and ageing itself. In The Story of a Heart, palliative care physician and bestselling author Rachel Clarke turns clinical precision into raw human feeling, while Pakistani writer Fatima Bhutto lays bare abuse and survival in The Hour of the Wolf. Ageing: A Social Movement joins them, refusing to let growing older mean growing quiet, with David Carlin and Peta Murray, who co-authored How to Dress for Old Age, a sharp, funny look at growing old on your own terms.

Investigative journalist and filmmaker Dandhy Laksono takes centre stage with his book, Reset Indonesia, offering sharp insights on socio-political reform and environmental justice. Shifting the spotlight to young minds and nostalgic narratives, author and musician Reda Gaudiamo invites audiences into the landscape of children's storytelling in Big Worlds for Little Readers, exploring the magic of writing for young readers, the ability to handle big themes with clarity, heart, and imagination.

Taking the Ubud stage for the first time, Pakistani-American writer, composer and performer Ali Sethi, best known for his ragaton blockbuster single Pasoori, joins us in conversation to unravel his pathways of longing, music and culture. "Ali Sethi's presence at the Festival this year is one we are especially proud of. His work captures precisely what we set out to achieve: keeping human stories at the forefront, giving voice to longing and identity, and dreaming up the human ability to change, to adapt, to hope, to love, to hear and to be heard," said Namal Siddiqui, Head of Programming.

NOTES TO THE EDITOR

Festival passes are now on sale, with both 4-Day and 1-Day options available. The 1-Day Festival Pass grants access to the full main programme on a chosen day, while the 4-Day Festival Pass offers full flexibility to come and go across the Festival's four days, from 22 to 25 October. Tickets, concessions and FAQs are available at ubudwritersfestival.com/tickets.

Special Events, Masterclasses and Cultural Workshops are separately ticketed special programmes and will be released on a rolling basis.

KEY DATES

• Sunday, 18 October – Tuesday, 20 October: Writers’ Retreat with Peter Godwin
• Monday, 19 October – Tuesday, 20 October: Writers’ Retreat with Xu Xi
• Wednesday, 21 October: Opening Press Conference and Festival Opening Gala
• Wednesday, 22 October – Sunday, 25 October: 2026 Festival