The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival is a great place for writers from around Asia to launch their
books. Alice Clark-Platts reports on
launches at this year’s Festival, which finished last week.
The Singapore Writers’
Group (SWG) launched Rojak, its first anthology of short stories. Rojak is Malay for an eclectic mix, and the anthology is a reflection of the myriad
nationalities of the more than 550 members of the SWG, many of whom are expat, and
their experiences of life both in Singapore, and in countries far away.
Seven of the SWG
authors travelled to Ubud to launch Rojak
at the beautiful and evocative Café Rouge on the third day of the Festival. Comfy
sofas, delicious mojitos and a glorious Bali sunset provided the backdrop for
readings from the book and a question and answer session with the authors.
The hugely supportive audience
was amazed to discover there is such a thriving literary scene in Singapore.
Australian Tim
Brennan’s Lucky Rice was another
notable launch. The book, illustrated by glorious photographs of Bali, is a fictitious
account of one of the author’s conversation with a Balinese rice farmer. It
deals with the quest for enlightenment, and transposes its philosophical ideas
into an accessible and joyful conversation between East and West, inviting the
reader to discover how nature whispers her wisdom to all who care to listen.
Lucky
Rice
was the winner of the Best eBook: 2014 eLit Awards (multi-media production). The eLit Awards
are a global awards program honouring the very best of English language digital
publishing, they are administered by the same
US-based company that runs the popular Independent Publisher of the Year
awards
It is fantastic that
the organisers of the Ubud Festival encourage launches by unknown local
authors, bucking the trend for literary festivals to laud only celebrity and
best-selling authors.
Further information
Lucky
Rice
www.facebook.com/luckyricebook
Rojak click here for the link to Amazon.
