Bar Luna

Bit of a literary hub, Bar Luna. Situated in Jl Goutama, it's the de facto Festival club during UWRF week, with book launches, drinks, talks and just conversation with other attendees. But each Thursday night (and other nights too we discovered) they hold a literary event. The bar is one of the enterprises of Australian expat, long-term Ubud resident, and honorary Balinese, Janet DeNeefe. Janet's name and Ubud are synonymous and she has been inspirational for many young Balinese women in showing them just what is possible. She founded UWRF in 2004 as a positive response to the terrible Bali bombings that took so many lives, Western and Balinese, and which all but destroyed the tourist industry. UWRF is now considered to be one of the best literary festivals in the world.

Last night was the first of a series of talks previewing writers who will attending the 10th anniversary festival this year. Called Festival 4Play, four writers and their work are profiled. Not everyone who is invited to Ubud is a household name. That's part of the charm, discovering wonderful new talent, especially from SE Asia.

So last night we heard about:

• Ian Burnet and his beautiful book Spice Islands, a historical account of the trade that changed the world.
• Carina Hoang's Boat People: personal stories from the Vietnamese exodus 1975-1999. We were fortunate to have M. Bundhowi present. His photographs from the period is one in the book and he now travels the world as a  peace photographer, having long since discarded his boyhood wish to be a 'war' photographer. He told his story with grace and charm.
• Pat Grant, a young cartoonist (his description) whose graphic novel Blue is causing a bit of a sensation.
  
  So far, one Javanese and three Australians, but finally
• Danny Morrison from Ireland. Two very different titles - Then the Walls Came Down, a series of (one-sided) letters to his partner from his time in prison during the troubles and Rudi: in the shadow of Knulp, which the reviewer described as the best piece of fiction by a living writer he had read in the past ten years. Quite a wrap. Having recently been in Ireland, these were of particular interest and have been added to the TBR pile.

But wait, there's more. Becky Wicks is back in town and on Tuesday night she'll be talking about her latest adventures as recounted in Latinalicious while another four books and their authors get the treatment on Thursday. Somehow I have got in on the act, so I hope I can do Lionel Shriver justice.

So much to do and, fortunately, plenty of time to do it in.