Palestinian Australian author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah has faced controversy and cancellation but remains undeterred in speaking out about the plight of Palestinians in the war on Gaza and the experiences of Muslim Australians since 9/11. She appeared at a community-driven event in Adelaide on 1 March 2026, organized in the wake of the cancellation of Adelaide Writers' Week.
Abdel-Fattah joined former Adelaide Writers' Week Director Louise Adler for a conversation at the Adelaide Town Hall as part of the Constellations: Not Writers' Week festival. The discussion focused on her latest novel, Discipline, which won the People's Choice Award at the 2026 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, and the experience of art imitating life.
Abdel-Fattah is also known for her novels Does My Head Look Big in This? and Coming of Age in the War on Terror. She is a Future Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University. Adler, the host, is the former Director of Adelaide Writers' Week, former CEO of Melbourne University Press, and former editor-at-large for Hachette Australia.
