MPH Quill: The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2009 Issue

OUT IN SEPTEMBER 2009!
GET YOUR COMPLIMENTARY COPY
AT MPH BOOKSTORES & AT THE
UBUD WRITERS & READERS FESTIVAL 2009!

THE ISLAND OF BALI is so unique that you never really get over it. When you think about Bali, you imagine long, lazy hours on the beach, watching surfers at Uluwatu or majestic volcanoes like Mount Batur.

Then there’s the sleepy town of Ubud, with more ravines than sandy shores. With all the winding narrow roads, even Google Maps concludes that it can’t find the directions you’re looking for.

Here, the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival isn’t held in some off-white exhibition hall. You have rice fields at the doorstep of your chalet and Hindu shrines nearby. Colourful paintings, pale deva sculptures and pottery line the streets. Tourists discard their stilettos and neckties to clad themselves in flowing skirts and slippers, hoping to emulate the exotic beauty of the sarong- and batik-clad Balinese. The serenity of the mountain range makes you forget about your life in the city.

The theme of this year’s festival is Compassion and Solidarity. In a place once devastated by terrorist bombings which cast a shadow on Bali’s history, this has meant holding hands and rebuilding its sacred community together. The disaster aroused an enduring spirit that grows from strength to strength.

Under the roof of the Indus Restaurant and other literary lounges, amidst picturesque views, authors from all over the world will congregate and debate on current world issues and how literature ennobles our character. Despite the economic gloom, literature sustains itself, and, dare we say, transcends the situation!

In this exclusive issue of MPH Quill, you will find interviews with both established authors and new literary voices.

So open up your mind and soak in the empowering ambience of literature.

See you at the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2009 on 7-11 October 2009!

Eric Forbes
Tan May Lee
Janet Tay
The Editors

This issue of MPH Quill is co-sponsored by Institut Terjemahan Negara Malaysia (ITNM), produced specially for the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2009