Irma and Karen chat about their top books from the last 12 months. Then Karen chats with lifelong activist and former politician Bob Brown about why writing is so important to activism, why storytelling with intent is important, how he approached writing his memoir, why the practice of writing notes while out in nature is key, the ways in which writing fiction is important in getting people to think about other lives and issues, why he’s given up writing his speeches, the ways in which hope sustains him, how collaboration with other artists is fundamental to his work, and his friendship with Richard Flanagan.

About Bob:
Bob Brown is a former politician and leader of the Australian Greens party. He’s also an environmentalist and activist. Bob was a founder of the Wilderness Society and a key campaigner to save the Franklin River from being dammed. Since then, Bob has campaigned tirelessly on many social justice and environmental issues, including the establishment of protected wilderness areas, the preservation of native forests, threatened and endangered species, and action on climate change and human rights. Bob has written a number of books for different audiences, including memoir, poetry, children’s fiction, travel, and stunning photo books.

In a special series direct from the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (UWRF) Omar Musa chats with Irma about how growing up in an artistic family set his course, why he stopped reading and writing during a dark period and how a new form of expression saved him, the ways in which earning a living from the thing you love can be deeply problematic, why winning the Australian Poetry Slam took him to UWRF and was a gateway into the literary world, why he wants to challenge his own assumptions and biases through his work, why he found it so difficult to go from poetry to writing his first novel, what it’s like collaborating with his cellist wife, and how he deals with deep fear and self-doubt.

About Omar
Omar Musa is a Bornean-Australian author, visual artist and poet. He has released four poetry books, four hip-hop records, and a novel, Here Come the Dogs, which was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and Miles Franklin Award. In 2015, he was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year. His one-man play, Since Ali Died, won Best Cabaret Show at the Sydney Theatre Awards in 2018. He has had several solo exhibitions of his woodcut prints, and his most recent book, Killernova, combines prints and poetry. His next novel Fierceland is out 2025, and here at the Ubud Writers and Readers festival he is performing The Offering with cellist Mariel Roberts.

In a special series direct from the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival Bora Chung chats with Irma about how she wrote her first short story solely for prize money but it eventually led to a short fiction collection that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, why her publisher thought an approach from Anton Hur to translate her collection into English was a scam, what it was like to be at the Booker Prize ceremony and the strange thing every judge said to her, how the Booker has impacted her career, why she doesn’t translate her own work into English even though she is a translator herself, the future of AI in terms of both writing and translation, why she translates books just for fun without the promise of a publishing contract, and why her Indian publisher recently submitting Your Utopia for a small Indian prize has meant more to her than shortlisting for the Booker.

About Bora

Bora Chung has written four novels and six collections of short stories. In 2022, her collection Cursed Bunny was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2023, it was a finalist in the U.S. National Book Award for Translated Literature. She has an MA in Russian and East European studies from Yale University, and a PhD in Slavic literature from Indiana University. She has taught Russian language and literature and science fiction studies at Yonsei University, and translates modern literary works from Russian and Polish into Korean.