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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Kelly Burke

Call this social cohesion? The war of words that laid waste to the 2026 Adelaide writers’ festival

Louise Adler Randa AbdelFattah Tony Berg Bondi Adelaide Peter Malinauskas Thomas Friedman AWW Guardian Australia
Composite of Louise Adler and Randa Abdel-Fattah
Former Adelaide writers’ week director Louise Adler and Palestinian Australian author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah. Composite: Flavio Brancaleone/EPA/Kristoffer Paulsen/Guardian design

It began as a quiet programming dispute in the genteel city of churches.

But by Wednesday morning, a frantic, six-day war of words had culminated in the end of the 2026 Adelaide writers’ week and total institutional collapse.

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