Adelaide Writers’ Week returns from 1 – 6 March featuring an impressive lineup of authors, including Australia’s own Geraldine Brooks, Helen Garner, Kevin Rudd and Jessie Tu. In dedicated author ticketed events, Marcus Zusak will celebrate 20 years since the publication of The Book Thief; Tim Winton will discuss writing, climate change and the fate of the planet, as outlined in his 13th novel, Juice; and masterful drama and crime writers Andrew Knight and Anthony Horowitz will discuss mysteries, murder and mayhem.
In a lively debate, team captains Annabel Crabb and David Marr will tackle the question of whether “true friends stab you in the front” as Oscar Wilde famously said. Other ticketed events will focus on The United States’ place in the world (ABC 7.30’s Sarah Ferguson and editor of The New Yorker, David Remnick); Islamophobia (Waleed Aly and Susan Carland); Antisemitism (Sir Simon Schama); uses and abuses of language in Kyiv, Mar-a-Lago and Gaza (Masha Gessen); and ultimate stories of blunders, both other peoples’ and individual (Richard Fidler, Sarah Kanowski and a stellar cast of authors). Don’t miss the inaugural Adelaide Writers’ Week Quiz Night, hosted by Shaun Micallefpromising an unforgettable evening of literary trivia, or beloved AWW audience events, Insiders hosted by David Speers, and the daily news discussion each morning, Breakfast with Papers.
Adelaide Writers’ Week Director Louise Adler AM says: ”The literary critic John Carey once wrote that good literature “doesn’t tell you what the truth is, but rather makes you feel what it would be like to know it”. The writers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry joining us at AWW25 are therefore, unsurprisingly, focused on discontent in ourselves as individuals, within families, and beyond to within communities and between nation states. The 2025 festival will take place in the aftermath of the US and UK elections and the forthcoming elections in Europe and Australia. Writers’ attention will necessarily turn to the role of language in a political landscape which appears, paradoxically, to be characterised by deepening divisions and at the same time consensus among a political class committed to the status quo. AdelaideWriters’ Week has long been able to host civil and generous conversations that inform, engage and inspire our audience and in these turbulent times, will continue that tradition.”
WRITERS’ WEEK
- The AWW Great Debate hosted by Annabelle Crabb and David Marr
Adelaide Town Hall, 28 February
- Adelaide Writers’ Week with free entry
Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden, 1 – 6 March
- Breakfast with Papers hosted by Tory Shepherd and Jonathan Green
Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden, 1 – 6 March
- The Book Nerd’s Quiz of Quizzes hosted by Shaun Micallef
The Drill Hall, Torrens Parade Ground, 1 March
- Mistakes Were Made with Richard Fidler, Sarah Kanowski and a stellar cast of authors
Adelaide Town Hall, 2 March
- Islamophobia: What’s the Problem? with Waleed Aly and Susan Carland
Adelaide Town Hall, 2 March
- Sir Simon Schama on Antisemitism featuring Simon Schama and introduced by the Premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas
Adelaide Town Hall, 2 March
- America, America with David Remnick (joining via live stream) and Sarah Ferguson
The Drill Hall, Torrens Parade Ground, 2 March
- The Book Thief – 20th Anniversary with Markus Zusak
Adelaide Town Hall, 3 March
- Why Words Matter with Masha Gessen
Adelaide Town Hall, 3 March
- An Evening with Anthony Horowitz featuring Anthony Horowitz with Andrew Knight
The Drill Hall, Torrens Parade Ground, 3 March
- Insiders hosted by David Speers and featuring Mike Bowers and a panel of Australia’s sharpest political minds
Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden, 4 March
- A Living National Treasure: Tim Winton featuring Tim Winton
Adelaide Town Hall, 6 March
