New chapter for Adelaide’s literary scene
After the country’s largest free literary festival was rocked by controversy, authors, publishers and indie booksellers united to carry forward a plot to keep top authors descending on the city. It kicks off this weekend.
Over 100 authors across 50 independently-run literary events will take place from Saturday, February 28 to Friday, March 6 – the dates that would have been Adelaide Writers’ Week.
The much-loved literary festival was cancelled on January 13, after the former Adelaide Festival board removed Palestinian-Australian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from its lineup on January 8.
The fallout was swift, with more than 100 writers boycotting in solidarity, board member resigning, legal proceedings and new appointments that led to an eventual apology to Abdel-Fattah and an invitation for her to speak at Writers’ Week 2027.
But Abdel-Fattah will speak in Adelaide this year after all, in the Constellations festival, an umbrella event that popped up amid the storm cloud of Writers’ Week.
A feature of the Constellations program is the day-long Aboriginal-led event called Rivers of Reason: Black & Arab Writers In Conversation, which Abdel-Fattah will be a part of. The Rivers of Reason programming fills a gap left by the formerly organised Writers’ Week’s Mob Club event – curated by Dominic Guerrera – which would have featured the largest lineup of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers since Adelaide Writers’ Week inception.
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Guerrera will be joined by Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal poet Ali Cobby Eckermann, Narungga poet Natalie Harkin and Martu author based south of Adelaide K.A Ren Wyld.
Ren tells CityMag early discussions of Constellations were “really positive”.
“The energy was greatly about ‘we won’t stand for this’ and we will do something to make sure that writers and readers still get activities, events in that time slot without duplicating Louise Adler’s program,” Ren says.
Adler had held the position as Writers’ Week director since 2023 and resigned on January 13, saying the event was a “canary in the coalmine” for free speech.
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Adler will join Abdel-Fattah at Adelaide Town Hall for a Constellations event on March 1, which sold out a 1100-seat venue in three days.
“The admiration for Louise in that room was extremely high, she’s one of Australia’s most respected workers in literature with a long history,” Ren says.
“The people really highly regard that festival around the world, not just here, and the people in the room were like, ‘No, you don’t do that to our festival. We won’t take that’ and that was really good to see as well.”
Organiser Jennifer Mills says when the group “set out to fill the void” left by the cancelled Writers’ Week the response was “incredible”.
“It just goes to show how important books, writing and freedom of expression are to South Australians,” Jennifer says.
Freedom of expression is a major theme in the programming, which includes a session with renowned journalist Peter Greste, author and TV producer Michael Delahaye discussing “Freedom of the Press under threat” and a forum facilitated by Jennifer called ‘When we refuse: cultural boycotts, artist strikes and creative solidarity’ at Port Adelaide venue Vitalstatistix.
On the morning of Monday, March 2, Constellations Poetry Reading will take place at Adelaide Town Hall, curated by poet Mike Ladd.
“Poetry matters more than ever right now in these dangerous times,” Mike says.
“We saw an act of political censorship, and that’s why I’ve asked a group of writers to read and talk about a poem from any era or place by a poet who has been censored or oppressed.”
Author and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and Cheek Media CEO Hannah Ferguson are also among those still visiting Adelaide, in a now sold-out event.
Constellations is a one-off, community-led festival with 50 events across 19 venues, including Adelaide Town Hall, bookshops, pubs, libraries and more. The full program is available online via WritersSA.
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