Cover Words can shift perspectives—and the writers at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2025 are proving it. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
Words can shift perspectives—and the writers at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2025 are proving it. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
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These powerful voices from Ubud Writers and Readers Festival are using their words to ignite movements, challenge injustice and rewrite history
The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival returns to Bali from October 29 to November 2, 2025, once again turning the island’s cultural heart into Southeast Asia’s leading literary stage. For four days, the festival gathers internationally acclaimed authors, emerging voices and passionate readers in an exchange that reaches far beyond the page.
This year, the spotlight falls on a remarkable group of writers whose work is more than literature. Forces for change, these journalists, activists and visionaries use words to spark social movements, humanise complex issues and challenge the status quo. Through panels, workshops and intimate conversations, these seven writers show how storytelling can do more than reflect the world—it can remake it.
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Shiori Itō: the voice that ignited Japan’s #MeToo movement
Above Shiori Itō ignited Japan’s #MeToo movement. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
Shiori Itō ignited Japan’s #MeToo movement. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
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Among the speakers at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, fearless journalist Shiori Itō transformed personal trauma into a catalyst for nationwide change. Her memoir Black Box chronicles her fight for justice after surviving sexual assault, becoming the foundation stone of Japan’s #MeToo movement and forcing her country to confront deeply embedded cultural attitudes toward sexual violence.
Okky Madasari: the novelist tackling injustice in Indonesia
Above Okky Madasar tackles injustice in Indonesia. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
Okky Madasar tackles injustice in Indonesia. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
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Indonesia’s most uncompromising social commentator uses fiction as her weapon of choice against oppression. Okky Madasar’s award-winning novel The Outcast (Maryam) courageously explores the persecution of Indonesia’s Ahmadiyya religious minority, giving voice to those society prefers to silence while challenging readers to examine their own prejudices.
Leila S Chudori: the author giving voice to silenced activists
Above Leila S Chudori gives voice to silenced activists. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
Leila S Chudori gives voice to silenced activists. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
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Through meticulously researched historical fiction, Leila S Chudori resurrects Indonesia’s buried traumas with unflinching honesty. Her Khatulistiwa Literary Award-winning Home (Pulang) follows political exiles from the 1965 anti-communist purge, while The Sea Speaks His Name (Laut Bercerita) honours the student activists disappeared during Suharto’s fall, ensuring their stories survive.
William Dalrymple: the historian decolonising our view of the past
Above William Dalrymple decolonises our view of the past. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
William Dalrymple decolonises our view of the past. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
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This masterful narrative historian, who will be present at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, is systematically dismantling centuries of Eurocentric historical accounts. William Dalrymple’s groundbreaking The Anarchy reframes British colonialism in India, exposing the East India Company’s corporate greed and violence while challenging readers to reconsider everything they thought they knew about empire and its lasting consequences.
Jenny Erpenbeck: the writer humanising the global refugee crisis
Above Jenny Erpenbeck humanises the global refugee crisis. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
Jenny Erpenbeck humanises the global refugee crisis. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
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Jenny Erpenbeck, Germany’s most acclaimed contemporary author, transforms abstract political debates into profoundly human stories. Her New York Times Notable Book Go, Went, Gone follows a retired German professor befriending African refugees in Berlin, forcing readers to confront the individual humanity behind headlines about displacement and belonging.
Pico Iyer: the essayist finding common ground in a divided world
Above Pico Iyer finds common ground in a divided world. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
Pico Iyer finds common ground in a divided world. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
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For decades, this lyrical travel writer has been our most essential guide to navigating cultural complexity. Pico Iyer’s deeply contemplative work, including The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, promotes cross-cultural understanding and empathy as antidotes to our increasingly polarised world, seeking peace within chaos.
Juhea Kim: the storyteller reviving a nation’s fight for freedom
Above Juhea Kim revives a nation’s fight for freedom. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
Juhea Kim revives a nation’s fight for freedom. (Photo: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival)
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Another highlight of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Juhea Kim is behind the global bestseller Beasts of a Little Land, a Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalist that illuminates Korea’s struggle against Japanese occupation. Her sweeping historical epic ensures that one nation’s vital fight for independence and dignity reaches readers who might never have encountered this crucial chapter of 20th-century history.
After more than a decade in lifestyle media, Clifford has mastered the art of writing seriously about things that are fun—and writing fun things about people who take themselves very seriously. At Tatler Asia, he helped steer its flagship lists, Tatler’s Most Influential and Asia’s Most Stylish. And today, he leads T-Labs, Tatler Asia’s content innovation hub, where he continues the noble pursuit of lifestyle storytelling, spinning stories on wealth, entertainment, necessary style, Hallyu, Hollywood, beauty and more for audiences across Asia.
