Adelaide writers’ week 2026 cancelled as board apologises to Randa Abdel-Fattah for ‘how decision was represented’
Sid Shniad
Adelaide writers’ week 2026 cancelled as board apologises to Randa Abdel-Fattah for ‘how decision was represented’
Almost all remaining festival board members have resigned after backlash to decision to disinvite the Palestinian Australian author
Adelaide writers’ week 2026 has been cancelled after days of turmoil as more than 180 authors and speakers dropped out in protest of the decision to disinvite the Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the Adelaide festival board announced the event, which was scheduled to begin on 28 February, would no longer go ahead. The three remaining members of the festival board have resigned immediately, after the resignations of four others – with the exception of the Adelaide city council representative, whose term expires in February.
The decision to cancel AWW entirely came five days after the festival board announced it had intervened to drop Abdel-Fattah from appearing at the festival, citing “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”.
“[We] 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,” it added.
“As a board we took this action out of respect for a community experiencing the pain from a devastating event. Instead, this decision has created more division and for that we express our sincere apologies,” the board wrote in its statement on Tuesday.
“Many authors have since announced they will no longer appear at Adelaide Writers’ Week 2026 and it is the Adelaide Festival’s position that the event can no longer go ahead as scheduled for this year. This is a deeply regrettable outcome.
“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.”
In a statement, Abdel-Fattah said she rejected the festival board’s apology, accusing it of being “disingenuous” and saying it “adds insult to injury”.
“It is clear that the board’s regret extends to how the message of my cancellation was conveyed, not the decision itself,” she wrote.
“Once again the board, citing the ‘national discourse’ for an action that specifically targets me, a Palestinian Australian Muslim woman, is explicitly articulating that I cannot be part of the national discourse, which is insulting and racist in the extreme.
“The board again reiterates the link to a terror attack I had nothing to do with, nor did any Palestinian. The Bondi shooting does not mean I or anyone else has to stop advocating for an end to the illegal occupation and systematic extermination of my people – this is an obscene and absurd demand.”
The board’s statement came hours after the AWW director, Louise Adler, announced her resignation in Guardian Australia, writing: “I cannot be party to silencing writers.”
Adler told Guardian Australia that the cancellation of AWW was “no surprise”.
“It was untenable,” she said. “There were 165 sessions and as of yesterday at about 4pm, only 12 events had a full complement of writers left. Seventy per cent of all the writers had withdrawn. You can’t stitch that back together. All those Australian writers, the internationals, people like Zadie Smith, M Gessen, Jonathan Coe – all of that hard work, gone.
“I am so sorry that this masterclass in poor governance has landed us in this position,” she added.
The Adelaide festival board said in its statement that the new board will focus on “ensuring a successful Adelaide festival proceeds in a way which safeguards the long and rich cultural legacy of our state but also protects the hardworking staff delivering this important event”.
On Tuesday evening, the South Australian government announced members of a new board, to be headed by Judy Potter, who previously led the Adelaide festival’s board for just under a decade.
Potter has also spent time on the South Australian Film Corporation and Adelaide Fringe board.
In a statement, the state government said Potter would be joined by former administrator, associate director and executive director of Adelaide festival, Rob Brookman, media identity Jane Doyle and financial services expert John Irving.
SA’s minister for the arts, Andrea Michaels, said the festival was a “treasured institution” that “transcends any individual”.
“It is vital we safeguard the festival for the future, which is why today I have appointed a board of experienced and trusted South Australians to ensure the 2026 Adelaide Festival can proceed under new leadership,” she said.
Potter said she felt “privileged” to be invited to step back in as chair, adding she would use her “expertise and experience to ensure the successful delivery of the 2026 Adelaide Festival”.
The absence of AWW in the Adelaide festival calendar has broader financial implications for the state that calls itself “the festival state”.
Those who bought tickets for the few paid-for events at AWW will receive refunds, with box office staff to get in touch with refund information in the coming days.
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, has repeatedly denied that he influenced the board’s decision to remove Abdel-Fattah, though he has said he offered his “clear and plain” opinion to the board and that he supported the decision to disinvite her.
In 2023 Malinauskas stated it would set a “dangerous precedent” if a government determined who was allowed to speak at the festival, after some objected to Adler’s decision to invite the Palestinian writer Susan Abulhawa.
“As Malinauskas was entitled to object to Susan Abulhawa in 2023 and not attend her session, in my opinion he was fully entitled to object to Randa Abdel-Fattah and not attend her session,” Adler told Guardian Australia on Tuesday afternoon. “That is one of the joys of democracy.”
Malinauskas has been contacted for comment.