Australian and international authors have begun a mass walkout of Adelaide Writers’ Week after the festival cancelled a planned appearance by prominent Palestinian-Muslim Australian writer and academic Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah.
Dr Abdel-Fattah was to appear in one panel only to talk about her latest novel, Discipline, in conversation with Richard Buckham.
The Adelaide Festival Board sent a letter to Dr Abdel-Fattah stating: “In a period of national mourning and heightened community tension, we have considered our current and planned operations in light of the broader community context.”
“As the Board responsible for the Festival organisation and all Writers’ week events, staff, volunteers and participants, an ongoing review of Adelaide Writers’ Week is underway and the Board has formed the judgment that it would not be culturally sensitive to proceed with your scheduled appearance at next month’s Writers’ Week.”
They then put a public statement on their website stating: “As the Board responsible for the Adelaide Festival organisation and all Adelaide Writers’ Week events, staff, volunteers and participants, we have today advised scheduled writer Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah that the Board has formed the judgment that we do not wish to proceed with her scheduled appearance at next month’s Writers’ Week.”
“Whilst we do not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah’s or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, 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.’”
Prominent authors have begun withdrawing from the program in solidarity with Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah including Michelle de Kretser, Professor Yanis Varoufakis, Professor Peter Greste, Dr Evelyn Araluen, Dr Melissa Lucashenko, Dr Amy McQuire, Professor Clare Wright, Professor Chelsea Watego, Dr Bernadette Brennan, Hannah Ferguson and Amy Remeikis.
More authors are expected to withdraw from the festival in coming days and members of the public are also being asked to boycott the festival over its anti-Palestinian censorship.
Last month Dr Abel-Fattah was cleared of any wrongdoing after an exhaustive 10-month investigation into her Australian Research Council Future Fellowship Grant.
The author boycott of Adelaide Writers’ Week follows the decimation of the 2025 Bendigo Writers Festival with more than 50 authors withdrawing due to the late issuing of a Code of Conduct requiring censorship over discussions around the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
‘This is 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,” said Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah.
“The Board’s reasoning suggests that my mere presence is ‘culturally insensitive’; that I, a Palestinian who had nothing to do with the Bondi atrocity, am somehow a trigger for those in mourning and that I should therefore be persona non grata in cultural circles because my very presence as a Palestinian is threatening and ‘unsafe’.”
“After two years of Israel’s live-streamed genocide of Palestinians, Australian arts and cultural institutions continue to reveal their utter contempt and inhumanity towards Palestinians. The only Palestinians they will tolerate are silent and invisible ones.”
“I remain confident that the writing community and the broader public will ultimately respond with principle and integrity, as they did when I was singled out in the same racist way during the Bendigo Writers Festival.”
“In the end, the Adelaide Writers’ Festival will be left with panellists who demonise a Palestinian out of one side of their mouths while waxing lyrical about freedom of speech from the other,” said Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah.
In a statement, the Australian Arab Institute for Culture and Ideas (AAICI) said they were alarmed and appalled by the Adelaide Festival Board’s decision to remove award-winning Palestinian-Australian author and academic Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from its 2026 program. The announcement by the Adelaide Festival is yet another example of institutional cowardice and cultural bodies abandoning their mission to appease external interest groups.
“Invoking “cultural sensitivity” to justify silencing an author does not protect anyone. It sharpens the divide and is deeply troubling. It tells Palestinians that their testimony alone is too dangerous to be heard, that their grief is an unacceptable disturbance in public life,” said Jamal Hakim, AAICI CEO.
“If this community is serious about healing, Palestinian stories and human rights cannot be pushed to the margins. They must remain visible, audible, and part of the shared record. Silence does not mend wounds, nor does it help end atrocities.”
“Cultural institutions and local governments need to look closely at how they decide who belongs. These spaces should not bend under outside pressure or political discomfort. They exist to reflect the full breadth of this country, not a curated version that edits out inconvenient voices of the most marginalised,” said Hakim.
Adelaide Writers’ Week is scheduled to run from 28 February – 5 March 2026.
Image: Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah – courtesy of Macquarie University
Update: (Tuesday 13 January 2026) The Adelaide Festival has announced that the 2026 Adelaide Writers’ Week will not proceed and has issued an apology to Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah for how the decision was represented.