Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah is set to feature in two sessions at the key writers’ event of her hometown, after her invitation to appear at the Adelaide Writers Festival was pulled.
CEO of the Sydney Writers’ Festival, Brooke Webb, said Abdel-Fattah is a “significant Sydney writer” and that her latest book “speaks to the here and now.
The announcement has already garnered extensive media treatment and a page-one story in the Sydney Morning Herald.
It comes after Abdel-Fattah’s invitation to the Adelaide Writers’ Week was cancelled in January, causing uproar from authors who cancelled their own appearances in solidarity. The event was ultimately cancelled, and the board behind the decision disbanded. Abdel-Fattah received an apology from the replacement board and an invitation to participate in the 2027 event.
In a joint statement with artistic director Ann Mossop, the festival leaders noted Sydney’s diversity and the Festival’s aim of reflecting “the many and varied communities of writers and readers in its program.”
They said the commitment to representation sits alongside national and international voices across fiction and non fiction.
The restical directors declared they won’t shy away from challenging conversations. “
A festival like ours, which holds freedom of expression as a core value, is not in the business of cancelling or censoring writers. We think a writers’ festival provides a rare and welcome opportunity for readers and writers to come together for nuanced conversations about complex and sometimes difficult topics.
“Readers can make up their own minds about what they would like to attend. Without writers, there is no festival.”