An Australian writers’ festival is facing backlash after it announced it had removed an Australian-Palestinian author from its lineup over concerns her inclusion would “not be culturally sensitive” in the wake of the Bondi massacre.
The Adelaide festival has pulled down part of its website as dozens of speakers said they were boycotting writers’ week, after Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah was dumped from the lineup with the board citing “cultural sensitivity” concerns in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
The page promoting the schedule of authors, journalists, academics and commentators was “unpublished” on Friday following widespread condemnation of the board’s decision to remove Abdel-Fattah.
“In respect of the wishes of the writers who have recently indicated their withdrawal from the writers’ week 2026 program, we have temporarily unpublished the list of participants and events while we work through changes to the website,” the festival posted online.
By Friday afternoon, 47 participants had withdrawn, with more believed to be coordinating their exit announcements with fellow speakers.
Writers Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, Miles Franklin winner Michelle de Kretser, authors Drusilla Modjeska and Melissa Lucashenko along with Stella award-winning poet Evelyn Araluen were boycotting the event.
Best-selling author Trent Dalton, who was scheduled to deliver a keynote at Adelaide Town Hall – one of the few writers’ week events that charges an entry fee – also withdrew.
On Thursday 8th January, the festival board released a statement saying it had taken the decision to cancel Australian sociologist, lawyer, writer of fiction and non-fiction, and Palestine advocate Randa Abdel-Fattah’s appearance after a review undertaken in the wake of the Bondi terror attack in December raised “cultural sensitivity concerns”.
“The Adelaide Festival Board is responsible for the delivery of Australia’s much-loved Adelaide’s Writers’ Week. As an organisation and as people, we have been shocked and saddened by the tragic events at Bondi. We have been further saddened by the national grief and the significant heightening of both community tensions and the community debate,” the statement read.
“In this shared time of both mourning and reflection, we have spent the last weeks commencing a review across our current and planned operations and interactions through the lens of the current national community context and the role of Adelaide Festival in promoting community cohesion.”
It continued that “we have today advised scheduled writer Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah that the board has formed the judgement that we do not wish to proceed with her scheduled appearance at next month’s Writers’ Week.”
The statement added: “While we do not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah’s or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, given her past statements we have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to programme her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
In response, Abdel-Fattah issued her own statement describing the move as “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship and a despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre”.
She added: “What makes this so egregiously racist is that the Adelaide Writers Festival Board has stripped me of my humanity and agency, reducing me to an object onto which others can project their racist fears and smears.” Her full statement can be read here.
In a separate post, she urged readers to “show solidarity” with the authors who had boycotted the event “despite the material cost of lost income in speaking fees and books sales”. “Please buy their books, spread the word to family and friends,” she said.
The Stella Prize-winning poet Evelyn Araluen was one of the first writers on Thursday to publicly withdraw from the lineup in support of Abdel-Fattah.
The author of Dropbear and The Rot described the decision as a “betrayal” of the democratic ethos that has defined the festival.
“Erasing Palestinians from public life in Australia won’t prevent antisemitism. Removing Palestinians from writers’ festivals won’t prevent antisemitism. I refuse to participate in this spectacle of censorship.”
