‘Their career is toast’: writers’ festival anguish

The spectacular blowout of Adelaide Writers’ Week has sent shockwaves through the literary community as it grapples with the far-reaching consequences of losing one of its biggest events.

Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah has accepted the Adelaide Festival board’s apology for removing her from the writers’ week program and said she would consider an invitation to attend the 2026 event.

But there is no happy ending for thousands of other people and businesses affected by the public row, which led to 180 speakers boycotting the event and the resignation of the event’s celebrity manager and several board members.

Writers’ week was scheduled to begin in February but was canceled when the program collapsed and a new board and chairs were installed.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas publicly stated that he approved the board’s decision to dismiss the Palestinian-Australian writer due to “cultural sensitivity” regarding the Bondi massacre.

Asked if he was concerned about the impact on the state’s economy if the event was cancelled, he replied: “No, because Adelaide Writers’ Week is a free event, a ticketless event, generating zero revenue.”

But members of the literary community told AAP that losing this year’s event would have a staggering impact on an already struggling industry.

Author and critic Beejay Silcox, who is scheduled to attend six writers’ week events, said he was angered by the prime minister’s claim.

“There’s a huge economy and the blast radius is huge, and it’s absolute nonsense,” he said.

“I’m very angry (at his comment) and it shows how unsympathetic we are about how basic economies work.

“Economies of opportunity are huge, and now it has never been harder to make a sustainable living on the page as a writer.”

In preparation for the event, he had read 19 books and lost up to $6,000.

Adelaide Festival’s 2025 Impact Report said the event, the third under departing director Louise Adler this week, achieved a record-breaking attendance of 160,000 across 166 sessions, spanning live and virtual formats and with programs aimed at schools, families and young adults.

The event was live-streamed to 70 libraries, schools, retirement homes and community centers, and their podcast garnered more than 160,000 listens and downloads.

Angus Dillon, co-owner of Dillons Bookshop, which hosts the hugely successful book tent for Writers’ Week, said it was Australia’s largest, most respected, longest-running literary festival and “hugely important” to writers, publishers and the events industry.

“The government surely knows that when it makes economic impact on other events, it is not just measured by ticket sales,” he said.

“Room nights are measured by tourism and visitation, and those are often used as justification for investing in events.”

He noted that the controversy sparked international headlines.

“Normally in the New York Times we celebrate stories about South Australia,” he said.

“But this means global attention is being paid to the festival state not holding one of its most important events.

“The flow-on effect of having all these people in town and Adelaide being the center of the book universe for a week is gone; I think that’s devastating for the book industry.”

Wakefield Press publisher Michael Bollen said that for those working on the front line of literature – publishers, authors, booksellers and subcontractors – the prime minister’s comments appeared “a bit condescending”.

“To say there is zero impact because it generates zero revenue is simply not the case for authors, publishers and stakeholders, and of course there are actually ticketed events,” he said.

“There are deals being made behind the tents, there are publishing arrangements, there are interstate publishers meeting SA writers – it’s all important.

“Who knows how many people from outside SA will cancel their visits, meaning hotels, restaurants, bars and perhaps even other festival events will be affected.”

Pink Shorts Press co-director Emily Hart said the festival’s loss was “heartbreaking, devastating”.

“I think there’s a lot of anger as well as sadness in the community,” he said.

“The number of books sold at Adelaide Writers’ Week is huge.

“We had books that we ordered from our supplier that are now going to be returned, and for a small publisher like us that actually represents quite significant revenue.”

Australian Writers Guild president Jennifer Mills said she had heard the writers’ week book tent “easily takes in half a million dollars a year”.

“Book sales at Adelaide Writers Week are hugely important for authors,” he said.

“There are also more indirect economic losses from promotion, marketing, networking and everything else where you can’t fully measure the economic impact of what’s happening at festivals.

“I would say that the recent attacks on freedom of expression threaten our literary culture, and writers more generally are already struggling.”

The average annual income for writers in Australia is $18,200 and “publishing opportunities for debut authors are shrinking”, he said.

“This impoverishes literature in Australia and Australian culture as a whole.”

With the state election just over two months away, both sides of politics have expressed disappointment at the intense publicity surrounding the event’s cancellation.

“That’s not my focus, is it?” Mr Malinauskas said at a Port Augusta campaign event.

“I know a lot of people are obsessed with it right now… but what I’m obsessed with is the kind of things we do here.”

Ms Silcox said festivals were places where “business, opportunity and collaboration happens when talent is recognised”.

“The early writers, who would have seen a great free crowd, lost that chance,” he said.

“I spoke to several publishers this week who are devastated that the careers of people they supported and truly cared about are over.”

There was an increase in the sales of at least one book.

Dr Abdel-Fattah’s publisher, University of Queensland Press, warned of extended wait times for copies of the Discipline book “due to the influx of orders”.

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