The 2026 edition of Adelaide Writers' Week (AWW), an annual event in Australia held under the auspices of the wider Adelaide Festival (AF) but organised by a separate committee, was affected by a mass boycott of writers which precipitated its complete cancellation. The writers boycotted the event, due to be held from 28 February to 5 March 2026, after the Adelaide Festival board announced on 8 January that they had cancelled the scheduled appearance of Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah, saying that it would "not be culturally sensitive" to do so following the 2025 Bondi Beach shooting.
By 13 January, around 180 participants had withdrawn from Writers' Week. All members of the Adelaide Festival board except one had also resigned following the backlash. Louise Adler, director of Adelaide Writers' Week, who had disagreed with the board, also announced her resignation on 13 January, saying that she could not be party to silencing writers. On the same day, the entire event was cancelled. Four members of a new board were announced, to be led by former AF chair Judy Potter. On 15 January, the Adelaide Festival issued an apology to Abdel-Fattah and invited her to speak at Adelaide Writers' Week 2027.
Background
With 160,000 attendees in 2025, Adelaide Writers' Week is the largest free literary festival in Australia. It is held under the auspices of the wider Adelaide Festival (AF) but organised by a separate committee. The director of AWW was Jewish Australian literary executive Louise Adler until her resignation in January 2026, during the boycott. The program comprises a curated selection of writers who are brought together to present six days of panel sessions held outdoors in the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden in Adelaide, South Australia. It also includes ticketed events held elsewhere, and the talks are made available via podcast.
Previous protests In 2023, there were protests against the inclusion of Palestinian American writer Susan Abulhawa and Palestinian writer and poet Mohammed el-Kurd in the AWW program. The Premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas, said on the opening night that he had come under pressure to defund the program, but that "leads us into the territory of Putin's Russia". Louise Adler, the Jewish director of AWW, defended the selections, reminding the media that authors were invited based on their writing, not their social media comments, and that criticising Israel does not equate to antisemitism. One long-term sponsor, MinterEllison, withdrew their funding for the event.
In February 2024, author Randa Abdel-Fattah, who is of Palestinian and Egyptian heritage, along with nine other academics, sent a letter to AF board chair Tracey Whiting, AWW director Louise Adler and AF CEO Kath Mainland, asking them to rescind an invitation to the New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, who is Jewish, due to controversial comments he had made in a column which they alleged were racist towards Palestinians. According to former AWW director Jo Dyer, it was common to receive requests to exclude people from the event, but these were generally not acted upon. On that occasion, the board said that they supported Friedman's ongoing participation, but said that Friedman decided to withdraw owing to his own scheduling clash. However, Friedman disputed this, saying in 2026 that he had been disinvited by the organisers, who had explained to him that "the timing would not work out". According to former board member Tony Berg, Adler had lobbied for Friedman's removal from the program and that Berg had consequently resigned from the board in protest. Adler later said that Berg had breached confidentiality. Whiting wrote to the 10 signatories on the letter saying that "[a]sking the Adelaide Festival and Adelaide Writers' Week to cancel an artist or writer is an extremely serious request" and that "[w]e have an international reputation for supporting artistic freedom of expression".
Randa Abdel-Fattah Abdel-Fattah has been an outspoken supporter of the Palestinian cause. Her research has covered topics such as Islamophobia, race and Palestine as well as youth and social movement activism. Her latest book, Discipline, explores the experience of Muslim Australians, some of Palestinian descent, during the Gaza war.
In a 2024 tweet, Abdel-Fattah stated that "The goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony", the existence of which, she said, depends on violence against Palestinians. In February 2024 she reshared leaked details of over 600 Australian Jews in the 2024 J.E.W.I.S.H creatives and academics doxxing incident.
2026 event
The 2026 edition of Adelaide Writers' Week was due to be held from 28 February to 5 March 2026. Author Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian author of Egyptian and Palestinian descent, was due to appear at the event to talk about her latest novel, Discipline.Mourad, Eman (15 July 2025). Discipline (Randa Abdel-Fattah, UQP) Books+Publishing. Retrieved 11 January 2026.
On 2 January, the South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, wrote to the board stating that Abdel-Fattah's appearance was "not in the public interest" and would be "contrary to current community expectations of unity, healing and inclusion" after the Bondi attack. Intense meetings between the AF board and the executive team took place, in which AF artistic director, Matthew Lutton, along with his CEO Julian Hobba, advised against excluding Abdel-Fattah. On 8 January 2026, the Adelaide Festival board, headed at the time by marketing executive Tracey Whiting, announced that Abdel-Fattah's scheduled appearance had been cancelled following a request from the Jewish Community Council of South Australia (JCCSA). The board's statement said that "given her past statements, we have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi" (referring to the 2025 Bondi Beach shooting).Story, Hannah (8 January 2026). "Authors withdraw from Adelaide Writers' Week after Randa Abdel-Fattah axed for 'cultural sensitivity'", ABC News. Retrieved 9 January 2026. JCCSA's public and government liaison, Norman Schueler, said that the council had sent a letter to the Adelaide Festival board a few days earlier requesting that Abdel-Fattah be removed from the program. The board said in its statement that it did "not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah's or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi".
The board's decision was supported by the South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, who said that he was prevented by law from directing the Adelaide Festival's board but was happy to clarify that the state government was not in support of Abdel-Fattah's inclusion in the AWW program. It later emerged that the board took this action because it was afraid of government action on funding, with its 5 January meeting minutes noting "that government involvement materially changes the risk profile and that failure to act could jeopardise current and future funding, and the Festival's broader viability". On 7 January, AF executive director Julian Hobba wrote to the board asking for it to reverse its decision, after being assured by the Premier that funding would not be withdrawn.
Opposition leader Ashton Hurn also publicly supported the government's position, as did Federal cabinet minister Madeleine King.Truu, Maani (12 January 2026)."Federal minister backs decision to axe Palestinian author from Adelaide writers' festival", ABC News. Retrieved 12 January 2026. The federal arts minister, Tony Burke, declined to comment on the decision, saying it was a matter for the festival organisers.
The board's decision was opposed by City of Adelaide councillors Keiran Snape and Janet Giles, publishing house Pink Shorts Press and a number of Adelaide bookstores such as Imprints Booksellers.Karakulak, Helen (9 January 2026). "Guerilla festival on cards as city councillor moves to pull Writers' Week funding" ,InDaily. Retrieved 9 January 2026.Karakulak, Helen (9 January 2026). "'Dark days': Writers' Week staff reject axing as authors leave in droves", InDaily. Retrieved 9 January 2026.
Backlash and boycott There was immediate and strong backlash from writers and the public to this decision.
By the following day, dozens of prominent Australian and international authors had announced their intention to boycott the event. Writers to pull out included Trent Dalton, Peter FitzSimons, Hannah Kent, Helen Garner, Jennifer Mills, Michelle de Kretser, Melissa Lucashenko, Peter Greste, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, Evelyn Araluen, Amy McQuire, Clare Wright, Chelsea Watego, Zadie Smith, M. Gessen, Jane Caro, Percival Everett and Sarah Krasnostein. Robbie Arnott and Bri Lee indicated that they would not participate unless Abdel-Fattah was reinstated. Susie Anderson, Karen Wyld, Dominic Guerrera, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, Tasma Walton and Gary Longsbrough were among First Nations authors boycotting the Writers' Week event.McIlwraith, Phoebe (9 January 2026). First Nations authors join boycott of Adelaide Writers' Week over the removal of Palestinian guest SBS/NITV. Retrieved 9 January 2026. ArtsHub Australia reported that around 90 participants, including significant Australian and international guests, had withdrawn from the event, using numbers from the Australian Readers and Writers Against Genocide. On 11 January, The Guardian independently reported more than 70 withdrawals. Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, who was due to speak about her 2025 memoir, A Different Kind of Power, withdrew in the days following.
Foreign correspondent Peter Greste, who was imprisoned in Egypt in 2013 after he was falsely accused of having an association with the Muslim Brotherhood, said that his withdrawal from AWW was "a protest at the festival's decision to cancel someone for comments that they made before Bondi". Writers SA, the state's peak writing and literature organisation, also withdrew from the event. The Australia Institute announced it was withdrawing its sponsorship from the 2026 event, stating that it had "valued being part of discussions at the event, which in the past have promoted bravery, freedom of expression and the exchange of ideas. Censoring or cancelling authors is not in the spirit of an open and free exchange of ideas".
The Jewish Council of Australia criticised the removal of Abdel-Fattah, posting on social media: "The fact that yet another institution has caved to a relentless campaign waged against Dr. Abdel-Fattah and supporters of Palestinians should be deeply concerning to all who value a plural and open society".
, 180 participants had withdrawn; all members of the AF board had resigned except for a representative from Adelaide City Council (whose term expires in February); and AWW director Louise Adler had resigned in protest at the board's decision.
The wider Adelaide Festival has also been affected, with DJ Haram announcing her withdrawal from an experimental music program.Simmons, David (9 January 2026). Writers' Week controversy contagion spreads as music program headliner drops out InDaily. Retrieved 9 January 2026. The British band Pulp, headed by Jarvis Cocker, who are scheduled to play at the free opening night concert of AF, had considered boycotting the event, but after the new board had apologised to Abdel-Fattah, agreed to go ahead with the engagement.
Responses Response by Abdel-Fattah Abdel-Fattah said that the rescinding of her invitation was "a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship and a despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre ... What makes this so egregiously racist is that the Adelaide Writers' Festival board has stripped me of my humanity and agency, reducing me to an object onto which others can project their racist fears and smears."