The Latest Breaking News from Louise Adler

As authors abandon Adelaide Writers’ Week after cancelling of Randa Abdel-Fattah, is free speech in tatters?

The decision by the Adelaide Festival Board to exclude Palestinian Australian author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah from Adelaide Writers’ Week on the grounds of “cultural sensitivity” is based on a dangerously broad and vague criterion for suppressing free speech.

The Conversation · Jan 9

How the Bendigo writers’ festival’s code of conduct caused a walkout and claims of censorship

The last-minute code of conduct and the backlash are the latest in a string of controversies ‘symptomatic of the current environment’ in the arts

The Guardian - AU · Aug 21, 2025

Havoc by Rebecca Wait review – a Saint Trinian’s tragicomedy

A mysterious illness sweeps through an isolated girls’ boarding school, in a work brimming with horror, humour and hysteria

The Guardian - UK · Jul 9, 2025

Safety signals and security guards: when did Australian writers’ festivals become so fraught?

Perth writers’ weekend has a risk-management plan, as a culture war brews ahead of Adelaide writers’ week. How can organisers keeps festivals safe without watering them down?

The Guardian - AU · Feb 23, 2024

MUP has commissioned a history of itself. The result is illuminating, but in striving for 'neutrality' it falls short

Privately commissioned histories sit oddly within the Australian book market. Often produced as acts of institutional vanity or exercises in public relations, many are no doubt read only by members of the institutions themselves, and ignored by the wider reading public.

The Conversation · Mar 16, 2023

Adelaide Writers’ Week withdrawals ‘sad’ and ‘unfortunate’, director Louise Adler says

Adler defends ‘courageous spaces to air opposing views’ as major sponsor and three Ukrainian writers pull out over comments from other invited authors

The Guardian - AU · Feb 24, 2023

Free speech or 'genocide cheering'? Ukranian authors withdraw from Adelaide Writers' Week

This week, Ukrainian writer Maria Tumarkin announced her withdrawal from Adelaide Writers’ Week, along with fellow Ukrainians Olesya Khromeychuk and Kateryna Babkina. (Tumarkin writes that she doesn’t support calls for resignations, cancellations, or boycotts of the event.)

The Conversation · Feb 24, 2023

Ukrainian authors reveal reasons for decision to withdraw from Adelaide Writers' Week

Ukrainian authors who have chosen to withdraw from Adelaide Writers' Week have opened up on their reasons, with one saying she could not participate in "any kind of event that gives voice" to doubts about her nation's sovereignty.

ABC News · Feb 24, 2023

Ukrainian authors withdraw from Adelaide Writers' Week amid line-up controversy

Ukrainian authors who had been scheduled to appear at Adelaide Writers' Week have withdrawn from the festival amid ongoing controversy over public comments another guest made about Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

ABC News · Feb 22, 2023

Are calls to cancel two Palestinian writers from Adelaide Writers' Week justified?

The organisers of the 2023 Adelaide Writers’ Week, which starts on March 4, are under pressure to withdraw invitations to two Palestinian writers: one for her views about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the other for his views on Israel and Zionism.

The Conversation · Feb 17, 2023