Aggressive behind-the-scenes campaigning by pro-Israel lobbyists has led to the cancellation of one of Australia’s biggest literary festivals.
The internationally renowned Adelaide Writers’ Week — which last year attracted over 160,000 visitors — has been scrapped, and the remaining members of the board overseeing it will stand down.
Scores of writers from across the nation and around the world abandoned the event in response to last Thursday’s cancellation of Palestinian writer, Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah.
In a statement this afternoon, the remaining members of the Adelaide Festival board — four resigned over the weekend — said the event would not go ahead, and that they would also stand down.
The implosion of the internationally renowned event — in its fifth decade — follows sustained behind-the-scenes pressure by pro-Israel campaigners fighting for Dr Abdel-Fattah to be banned from the event.
“AWW is the canary in the coal mine. Friends and colleagues in the arts, beware of the future” – Director Louise Adler
After months of pressure — going back at least as far as September last year — the Adelaide Festival Board last Thursday announced it had revoked Dr Abdel-Fattah’s invitation.
The board alleged it had done so because of past comments Dr Abdel-Fattah had made.
In the statement this afternoon, the remaining board members said they had disinvited Dr Abdel-Fattah “out of respect for a community experiencing the pain from a devastating event”, referring to the December Bondi terror attack.
“Instead, this decision has created more division and for that we express our sincere apologies,” the statement says.
“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,” it states.
The Adelaide Writers’ Week is part of the broader Adelaide Festival, which runs over three weeks from late February to early March.
Some time after last Thursday’s announcement, Adelaide Festival removed from its site the list of writers who had been scheduled to appear at the event.
Pictured speakers (since deleted) appearing on the Adelaide Festival site on January 9. Source: Wayback Machine/Adelaide Festival
Searches by The Klaxon show internet archive WayBack Machine captured the site last Friday, January 9, before it was taken down.
The festival had been advertising a lineup of “123 speakers”, naming 120 of them.
Those to have pulled out of the event include: Zadie Smith, Helen Garner, Percival Everett, Trent Dalton,Michelle De Kretser, Melissa Lucashenko, Clare Wright, Yanis Varoufakis, M. Gessen, Peter Greste, Chris Hammer, James Bradley, Jane Caro, Peter FitzSimons, Sarah Krosntestein, Evelyn Araluen, Hannah Kent, , Masha Gessen, Toni Jordan and Kate Halfpenny.
The list of speakers (since deleted) appearing on the Adelaide Festival site on January 9. Source: Wayback Machine/Adelaide Festival
According to the Adelaide Festival’s annual report, last year Adelaide Writers’ Week “attracted a record-breaking 160,000 attendances from across South Australia and interstate”.
“Across six days, over 220 Australians and international authors convened for 166 sessions, spanning both live and virtual formats, and with programming for schools, families and young adults,” it states.
The director of Adelaide Writers’ Week, Louise Adler, announced her resignation this morning in an article published by Guardian Australia.
Adler said Dr Abdel-Fattah was being “cancelled after pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists, bureaucrats and opportunistic politicians.
“A writer is to be cancelled after pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists, bureaucrats and opportunistic politicians” — Louise Adler
“I cannot be party to silencing writers so, with a heavy heart, I am resigning from my role as the director of the AWW (Adelaide Writers’ Week).
“AWW is the canary in the coal mine. Friends and colleagues in the arts, beware of the future,” Adler writes.
“They are coming for you”.
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Editor, The Klaxon
