Watch & Listen

Join host Husnara Khanom for an illuminating conversation. Scottish historian and author Sam Dalrymple goes back to 1928, when a vast swathe of Asia—India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, and more—was united under the Indian Empire. He explores five partitions and Asia’s lasting legacy of war, exile, and division.

In this week’s episode, Australian rewilding facilitator Gina Chick, British-born essayist and novelist Pico Iyer, and Indonesian writer Agustinus Wibowo join Krishna Sen for a conversation on seeking discomfort—showing how embracing fear and risk can turn it into a catalyst for growth rather than an obstacle.

Revisit one of the timeliest panels from the 2025 Festival with Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Shiori Itō, and Virginia Haussegger in a provocative discussion moderated by Kirsten Han. Hear from these three female firebrands as they discuss writing their stories as women and claiming their place in a man’s world.

Hear from Australian journalist Brigid Delaney, Turkish writer and activist Ege Dündar, and transnational novelist Thammika Songkaeo as they reflect on how, in an increasingly digital world that reduces identity to labels, titles, and qualifications, we recognise identity as greater than what appears on the surface.

Listen to Australian award-winning author Gail Jones as she discusses her new book The Name of the Sister. In conversation with non-fiction writer Bri Lee, Jones delves into her latest work, following a young woman discovered in the outback with no identity who, unable to speak, sparks a media firestorm.

In our first episode, join moderator Petra Molnar as she talks with brilliant minds Omar El Akkad, Neal Hall and Shiori Itō about how they choose to confront unthinkable atrocity with their pens, the tools that allow them to write in these times of urgent need, and why it is necessary to write on the battleground.

In this episode of the special Secrets from the Green Room podcast series, co-host Karen Viggers talks with Ingrid Rojas Contreras, a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, about navigating international attention, why losing her memory was the best thing that ever happened to her.

In a powerful conversation, Craig Leeson discusses with host Karen Viggers how to find a hook to capture your audience, how to tell a story in a few words, the importance of character development, how to keep an audience engaged, and how hitting the lowest point of his career paved the way for the highest high.

In this next episode, co-host Karen Viggers sat down with writer, activist, and winner of the 2025 International Booker Prize, Banu Mushtaq, to discuss what drives her to write about the fundamentalist Muslim community she grew up in, and the personal and political impact of winning the Booker Prize.

In this next episode of the Secrets from the Green Room podcast series, co-host Irma Gold talks with International Booker Prize winner Jenny Erpenbeck why she mourns aspects of the German Democratic Republic and is driven to express this through writing, and the best part was finding out she had won the Booker.

In this next episode of the Green Room podcast series, award-winning Australian writer Lech Blaine shares with co-host Karen Viggers insights on how to shape a memoir and find a meaningful through-line within the truth, what he loves and hates about the publishing process, and much more.

In this first Secrets From the Green Room Special Series podcast episode, Irma Gold talks to travel writer Nina Karnikowski about why she no longer wants a five day trip to Paris and now prefers longer immersive travel, her tips for starting out as a travel writer, and her advice on pitching travel articles.

In a special series, the Australian podcaster duo Irma Gold and Karen Viggers of Secrets from the Green Room chatted with some incredible writers about their experience of the writing and publishing process in honest, green-room style, uncovering some of the plain and simple truths, as well as some of the secrets.

Thank you to all our lovers of stories, who joined us for a remarkable 2025 Festival, illuminated by creativity, imagination and storytelling.

Join us for our free Climate Day on the grounds of Bumi Kinar on Festival Sunday, 2 November. Get up-close-and-personal with some of the region’s most impressive climate activists, advocates, and change-makers.

Join us in exploring these timeless questions through conversations with Booker Prize winners, inspiring memoirists, political thinkers, musicians, poets, and emerging voices shaping the future of Indonesian literature.

Have you seen our brand-new mural in the heart of Ubud, celebrating this year's festival artwork on the walls of the Blanco Museum? If not, here’s a glimpse of our new lasting piece that now shines for the community and visitors alike.

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