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.