Novelist NH. Dini Received Lifetime Achievement Awards from UWRF 2017

Novelist NH. Dini Received Lifetime Achievement Awards from UWRF 2017

Yesterday, Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2017 has officially been opened and taking place at Puri Saren Ubud, the annual literary festival was held for the fourteenth times. The event that is still ongoing will invite more than 160 speakers from more than 30 countries. In its opening night. the audience were entertained with a taste of Balinese traditional culture with “Sekar Jagat” dance which was created by N.L.N Swasthi Wijaya Bandem in 1993. The dance warmly welcomed the participants, guests, speakers, government representatives, media, writers and journalists that were present on the attendance. For the last month, Bali has been hit with the fear of Mount Agung’s eruption which affected thousands of refugees. The natural occurrence fortunately did not hinder people to attend UWRF 2017 as witnessed on its opening reception. The peak of the Gala Opening is the Lifetime Achievement Awards that was given out to Indonesia’s most prominent literary figure and this year’s award went to NH. Dini. She became the receiver of the award after ten years, and the last one was given to the late Sitor Situmorang in 2010.

Accompanied by her son, Pierre Coffin, who is the director and animator of movie “Despicable Me”, NH. Dini ascended the stage to receive the award from Janet DeNeefe, UWRF’s co-founder. “I’m very happy to receive this award, because before me there was the late Sitor Situmorang, a senior that I respected. I have been involved in the literary world for tens of years and I feel very honored that I’m still remembered until now,” said NH. Dini in her speech. The renown author and feminist was born with the name Nurhayati Sri Hardini Siti Nukatin, on 29 February 2017 in Semarang. She is mostly known for her works like “Pada Sebuah Kapal” (1972), “La Barka” (1975), “Namaku Hiroko” (1977), “Orang-orang Tran” (1983), “Pertemuan Dua Hati” (1986), “Hati yang Damai” (1998) and many more. Until now, she has written more than 20 books and most of them are about women and how injustice and stereotypes always linger to them. “The attendance of NH. Dini, a living legend of Indonesia’s literature at UWRF is an honorable thing for us. There is no Indonesian that does not know NH. Dini and I hope that many international readers get to know her as well and acknowledge the greatness of Indonesian writers,” said Janet DeNeefe before handing out the award. With the theme of “Origins”, UWRF 2017 will roll out on full blast until 29 October 2017 and has promised several exciting events for you to participate in. Get more details about the festival here.