The week-long festival, initiated by the Saraswati Foundation for the Arts, will offer keynote presentations, panel discussions, interviews, workshops, feasts, exhibitions, tours and culinary demonstrations as well as dazzling performances of dance and music.

So far, the Festival has attracted 60 writers and cultural workers from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Europe and the USA. The Committee expects the confirmation of a further 25 writers and performers from Bali, Java, and other islands of Indonesia such as Sulawesi and Sumatra, pending funding.

The Festival will focus on several key themes: These are: Through Darkness to Light, Indonesian and Western perceptions of Bali post 2002; Pressing Concerns, which will include discussions by and with Southeast Asian book and magazine publishers; From Page to Stage [Writers and performance]; The Long Way Home [Travel writing and identity]; Children of the Gods Children’s and young people’s literature]; with one day being devoted to lifestyle, coffee and tropical cuisine.

Highlight events will include: Keynote addresses by Goenawan Mohamad [Indonesia] and Amitav Ghosh [India / USA]; the attendance of prominent Australian media personality George Negus; a poetic drama using life-sized puppets from Singapore, composed by the poet Felix Cheong; a wayang kulit [puppet drama] in English, based on ancient Balinese literature, by one of Bali’s famous dalang; a new dramatic collaborative work by Darwin dramatist Sandra Thibodeaux and a Balinese writer [to be announced]. The Threads of Life Textile Arts Center of Ubud will present a program of dance and music from the island of Sumba, together with a unique textiles exhibition.

There will also be cooking demonstrations and discussions by culinary and restaurant experts from Southeast Asia, and an East Coast Palm Sugar and Sea Salt Tour for writers, who will entertain each other with poetry and narrative readings over a café lunch.

Writers of and specialists in children’s and young people’s literature will attend from Australia [Dr Virginia Lowe, Ron Brooks, Anita Heiss], Bali [I Made Taro] Jakarta [Dr Murti Bunanta] India [Arup Kumar Dutta] and Hong Kong [Nury Vittachi]. There will also be a well-developed program of activities for the local Ubud primary schools, with the aim of encouraging the love of reading and creative writing among Bali’s younger generation.

Special and VIP functions will include Welcome Dinner in the Ubud Palace; a literary lunch; a cocktail party for the Press and publishers; and book launches and book signings. There will be a reception later in the week to present and honour the winners of the fourth Khatulistiwa Literary Award for the best Indonesian fiction for 2003 – 2004. The Khatulistiwa Award IV will be announced in Jakarta on 12 October. Founded in 2001 by Jakarta writer and publisher, Richard Oh, QB World Books, in partnership with The Plaza Senayan and the support of various sponsors, the award is intended to raise the image of Indonesian literature and to encourage more Indonesians to read.