Adelaide Writers' Week (AWW), known locally as Writers' Week or WW, is a large and mostly free literary festival held annually in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia in February and March. It forms part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts and comes under its governance. Writers' Week is held outdoors in the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden, where attendees meet, listen, and discuss literature with Australian and international writers in "Meet the Author" sessions, readings, and lectures.

Each Adelaide Writers' Week includes six days of free panel-sessions presented live in the gardens, later made available online via podcast. Selected sessions are shown live via videolink in some libraries. There are also free events for children and young adults, at which children's authors present their work for a range of ages, and other activities take place. The programme also features a series of ticketed special events, both at Adelaide Festival time and throughout the year.

History

The first Adelaide Writers' Week was held in 1960 as part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts, biennially in March. It is the longest-running dedicated writers' festival in Australia.

In some years, WW has been dedicated to a writer; these have included Colin Thiele, Thomas Shapcott, Margo Lanagan, Christopher Koch, Judith Wright, Jessica Anderson, A. D. Hope, and Alexis Wright.

Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa, a participant of the 2023 Adelaide Writers' Week, had previously shared a tweet from Russian president Vladimir Putin stating "DeNazify Ukraine", and was critical of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, labelling him a "depraved Zionist" and "more dangerous than Putin". Maria Tumarkin, a Ukrainian-born Australian historian and writer, along with Ukrainian writers Olesya Khromeychuk and Kateryna Babkina, withdrew from the event in protest at Abulhawa's inclusion.

In its 40th edition in 2025, Writers' Week was attended by around 160,000 over the six days, breaking previous records.

2026 boycott

On 8 January 2026, the Adelaide Festival Board announced that Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah's scheduled appearance at AWW had been cancelled, following a request from the Jewish Community Council of South Australia, due to concerns over "cultural sensitivity", following the December 2025 Bondi Beach shooting. The board's decision was supported by state premier Peter Malinauskas. After 180 participants, 6 of 7 board members, and the festival director had withdrawn or resigned, the event was completely cancelled on 13 January, with a new AF board announced later that day, led by former chair Judy Potter. AWW director Louise Adler resigned, and the whole event was cancelled. along with other community groups and individuals. It included an "in conversation" event with Randa Abdel-Fattah and Louise Adler, which was sold out. Constellations also included a panel discussion entitled "When We Refuse: Cultural boycotts, artist strikes and creative solidarity".

Description

Writers' Week is a mostly free daytime week-long literary festival held mostly outdoors in the shady Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden, north of Adelaide CBD. A few sessions have been held indoors in the evening, usually themed events with a panel of authors on stage. It is considered one of the world's pre-eminent literary events, described by literary magazine Kill Your Darlings (founded by writers Hannah Kent and Rebecca Starford) as "Arguably Australia’s most exciting and influential writers' festival".

A major event, it is a part of the Adelaide Festival and run by a dedicated Writers' Week director. In 2024 this was hosted by Tory Shepherd of The Guardian and Jonathan Green of ABC Radio National.

For those who are unable to attend the event, all East Stage sessions are livestreamed in some libraries, community centres, schools, aged care communities, and retirement villages. In 2022, 111 locations were covered.

In conjunction with Writers, Week, Writers SA hosts workshops for Adelaide writers, with visiting authors as special guests to help provide guidance. Authors sign their books at scheduled times outside the Book Tent, where books by all attending authors are on sale. In 2024 there are three stages: East, West, and North Stages (with shade cover for presenters and audience), as well as the Book Tent and the Torrens Tent. Beverages and food are on sale in a separate tent, and there is a block of many portaloos. Plastic chairs are provided for the audiences, and events are run at all stages throughout each day of the festival. The programme is published in hardcopy and online before the event

Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature

The biennial Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature were created by the Government of South Australia in 1986, and awarded during Writers' Week. The State Library of South Australia (SLSA) took over administration of the awards from Arts South Australia in 2020, and ran the event for two years, during which they were run at 4pm on the last day of Writers' Week. Library director Geoff Strempel felt that the awards should be uncoupled from the event in order to give them greater prominence, in line with interstate equivalents, and so rebranded the awards the South Australian Literaray Awards, with the inaugural event taking place in October 2024.

Directors

In the early years, the role of director of Writers' Week had various titles: in 1990, Angela Dawes was "Writers' Week Coordinator" and in 2008 Rose Wight was "executive producer".

Directors of Writers' Week have included:

  • Angela Dawes (1980s)