Extract from ABC News
Adelaide Writers' Week is part of the broader Adelaide Festival. (ABC News)
In short:
The Adelaide Festival board decided last week to rescind an invitation for author Randa Abdel-Fattah to speak at Adelaide Writers' Week.
All festival board members have now resigned and AWW 2026 has been cancelled following more than 180 writers pulling out of the event.
What's next?
The Adelaide Festival, which AWW is a part of, will run from February 27 to March 15.
The remaining members of the Adelaide Festival board will step down and this year's Writers' Week event has been cancelled after days of furore regarding the decision to cancel a scheduled appearance by Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah.
The Adelaide Festival board has also apologised to Abdel-Fattah "for how the decision was represented".
"This is a deeply regrettable outcome," the board said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
"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.
"We also apologise to Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah for how the decision was represented and 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."
In a post on Instagram, Abdel-Fattah said she rejected the board's apology.
"It is clear that the board's regret extends to how the message of my cancellation was conveyed, not the decision itself," she said.
Randa Abdel-Fattah had been set to promote her new book called Discipline. (ABC RN: Jennifer Wong)
The SA government has since announced the appointment of a new festival board, to be led by its immediate past chair Judy Potter.
Ms Potter said the new board would hold its first meeting tomorrow.
"We will be working to ensure the delivery of the 2026 festival … [but] we accept that's going to be missing a beautiful part in Writers' Week," she said.
Director's resignation
The event's cancellation followed the resignation of AWW director Louise Adler on Tuesday morning and the withdrawal of more than 180 participants from this year's event.
In an open letter published by The Guardian, Ms Adler, who is on the Jewish Council of Australia's advisory committee and is the daughter of Holocaust survivors, said she could not be party to silencing writers.
"The Adelaide Festival board's decision — despite my strongest opposition — to disinvite the Australian Palestinian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah from Adelaide Writers' Week weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation, where lobbying and political pressure determine who gets to speak and who doesn't," she wrote.
Louise Adler was appointed director of Adelaide Writers' Week in 2022. (Supplied: Adelaide Festival)
The Adelaide Festival board put out a statement last Thursday, January 8, saying it would "not be culturally sensitive to continue to program [Abdel-Fattah] at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi", referencing the Bondi Beach shooting, where 15 people were killed in December.
The board revealed on Tuesday that the decision to rescind Abdel-Fattah's invitation to speak had been made earlier that day.
"As a board, we took this action out of respect for a community experiencing the pain from a devastating event," the board said.
"Instead, this decision has created more division and for that we express our sincere apologies."
Zionist Federation of Australia CEO Alon Cassuto said it was "sad and unfortunate" Writers' Week had been cancelled, but said he thought it was "insensitive to platform" the views of Abdel-Fattah.
"I think the writers that boycotted the event are … under some false illusion that this is about freedom of speech," he said.
New board appointed
At a media conference this afternoon, Arts Minister Andrea Michaels revealed Ms Potter — who chaired the Adelaide Festival board from 2016 to 2023 — would return to the role.
Arts Minister Andrea Michaels (right) announced arts executive Rob Brookman would be joining the new board, which would be chaired by Judy Potter. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)
Ms Potter will be joined by prominent arts executive Rob Brookman, former newsreader Jane Doyle and business and arts figure John Irving.
"I'm very grateful for them coming on board," Ms Michaels said.
"We've had a very challenging week, and the future now and the focus now needs to be on running a successful Adelaide Festival."
The government said Adelaide City Council's nominated board member, Mary Couros, would remain "until the expiry of her term in early February".
Ms Potter said the Adelaide Festival was loved both in South Australia and at national level, and was "so important to our state".
"[I] feel quite privileged to be invited to come back in what is quite a difficult time, to be able to use my experience and expertise and understanding of the Adelaide Festival, to be able to move quite quickly to ensure the successful delivery of our very loved festival," she said.
Mr Brookman and Ms Potter spoke of the need to deliver a successful festival. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)
Mr Brookman — who was among those who condemned the decision to cancel Abdel-Fattah's appearance at Writers' Week — said the new board would be "doing everything in our power to try and deliver a fantastic festival".
"Having been publicly critical of the decision that was taken, I'm very happy to be stepping up to help the festival through this period," he said.
"There couldn't have been a much more radical outcome than the entire board of the festival resigning so I think that most reasonable people would see that as an indication that it's been accepted that there needs to be renewal and change."
Mr Brookman said the "extraordinary outpouring" in recent days demonstrated the South Australian public's enthusiasm for the Adelaide Festival and Writers' Week.
"The power of what the festival offers, the power of what Writers' Week offers are such that the public will embrace those events," he said.
"They will celebrate the return of Writers' Week in 2027 and in fact I think there'll be an incredibly potent atmosphere around Writers' Week in 2027."
Greste says board 'triggered crisis'
Among the scores of authors who withdrew was Walkley Award-winning foreign correspondent Peter Greste, who said the saga offered serious lessons for those in charge of future festivals.
"The moment I saw this decision was the moment that I realised that they'd just triggered a crisis," he told ABC News Channel.
"Of course it was going to be difficult to schedule someone like Randa, but at the same time it was also really clear to me that taking her off was only going to create an even wider controversy.
"So I really hope the Adelaide Festival has learned from this, that we'll see a new board that has … a balance of people that understand the kind of issues at stake and … has the courage to program controversial writers but also stand by those decisions."
Peter Greste was among the 180 authors who withdrew. (ABC News: Adrian Wilson)
Greste said the cancellation of Writers' Week had become inevitable and that he felt the former board "really had to go".
"It's unfortunate, I regret it, I wish that this thing had never happened — I really wanted to be there — but I don't think there was much alternative, to be honest," he said.
Focus turns to festival
Outgoing board chair Tracey Whiting stepped down on Sunday after three other board members — Daniela Ritorto, Donny Walford and Nicholas Linke — had already quit.
This left only former state government minister Leesa Chesser, Adelaide Airport managing director Brenton Cox and Adelaide City Council representative Mary Couros on the board of the festival.
Adelaide Writers' Week is held in the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden in the Adelaide CBD. (ABC News: Lisa Needham)
In Tuesday's statement, the board said its focus was now on "rebuilding trust with our artistic community and audience to enable open and respectful discussions at future Adelaide Writers' Week events".
"The focus is now 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," the board said.
"With this in mind, all remaining members of the Adelaide Festival Board will today step down — with the exception of Adelaide City Council representative whose term expires on 2 February 2026 — to allow for an orderly transition to a new board to secure the success of the 2026 Adelaide Festival and beyond."
The Adelaide Festival, which AWW is a part of, will run from February 27 to March 15.
The Adelaide Festival was first held in 1960 and spurred the creation of the Adelaide Fringe, now Australia's largest arts event.
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