Adelaide writers’ week 2026 has been cancelled after more than 180 authors and speakers protested against the withdrawal of Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah.
Abdel-Fattah was due to promote her book, Discipline, but organisers pulled her appearance in the wake of the Bondi terrorist attacks against the Jewish community.
This led to authors fleeing the event and its director, Louise Adler, resigning.
“I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I am resigning as director of Adelaide writers’ week,” Louise Adler wrote in The Guardian.
Adler had opposed the festival board’s decision to disinvite the Australian Palestinian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah from Adelaide writers’ week in
“It weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation, where lobbying and political pressure determine who gets to speak and who doesn’t,” she said.
In a statement yesterday afternoon, the Adelaide festival board announced the February event would no longer go ahead. Seven festival board members resigned immediately with only the Adelaide city council representative, whose term expires in February, remaining.
The decision to drop Abdel-Fattah was due to “cultural sensitivities” after the attack on the Jewish community in Bondi.
On Tuesday, the board apologised to Abdel-Fattah “for how the decision was represented”.
“This is a deeply regrettable outcome,” the board said on Tuesday afternoon.
“We recognise and deeply regret the distress this decision has caused to our audience, artists and writers, donors, corporate partners, the government and our own staff and people.
“We also apologise to Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah for how the decision was represented and reiterate this is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history.”
Abdel-Fattah was due to promote her latest novel, Discipline, which chronicles characters who must grapple with the price paid when those with privilege choose to remain silent.
“Of course, every writer [draws] from their own world and experiences and certainly in this book,” she told the ABC.
“But I [also] felt the creative energy that comes with exploring worlds and people from my own circles, and [I had] fun with that too”.
Abdel-Fattah was one of more than 50 guests who withdrew from the Bendigo Writers Festival in August over concerns the event’s code of conduct limited free speech.
“It was impossible for me to attend a festival — ironically to speak about my book Discipline, which is about the silencing of Palestinians in academia and the media — and have taken away from me my language,” she told ABC Radio National’s Arts in 30,” she said.
In a post on Instagram, Abdel-Fattah said she rejected the board’s apology.
“It is clear that the board’s regret extends to how the message of my cancellation was conveyed, not the decision itself,” she said.
