The following sessions have been modified due to cancellations of authors. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. 

Saturday 29 February

Salt, Sand and Saving the World

With Tyson Yunkaporta / chaired by Tom Griffiths

2.30pm West Stage

In his remarkable book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, Tyson Yunkaporta argues we must transform our thinking to change the earth’s current dangerous trajectory.  An accessible introduction to complex Aboriginal philosophies and the profound wisdom of the world of the Dreaming, Sand Talk’s yarns both delight and intrigue, a radical revelatory book that allows us to reimagine our future.

PLEASE NOTE

Bruce Pascoe will be unable to attend this year’s Perth and Adelaide Festivals due to the recent fires which have caused significant damage to his property and surrounding area in East Gippsland. Bruce has made the difficult decision to scale back his various commitments so he can focus on addressing the damage on his property and assist in the recovery efforts in his local community. The session will continue with Tyson Yunkaporta and no replacement for Bruce Pascoe.

 

Sunday 1 March

Oil Under Troubled Water

With Bernard Collaery / chaired by Linda Jaivin

10.45am East Stage

In May 2018, barrister and former ACT Attorney General Bernard Collaery was charged under the Intelligence Services Act.  His crime?  Representing the East Timorese Government in their case against Australia in the Hague, a case seeking to nullify the Timor Sea Treaty after whistleblower Witness K revealed the Australian Government had illegally and shamefully bugged their neighbour and wartime ally - one of the poorest nations on Earth - for commercial advantage.  In Oil Under Troubled Water, Bernard Collaery provides the sordid backstory to what has been described as “Australia’s biggest political scandal”.

PLEASE NOTE

Ma Jian can no longer attend his session ‘China Dream’ at Adelaide Writers’ Week due to illness. His session is replaced with Bernard Collaery with ‘Oil Under Troubled Water’. We apologise for the disappointment.

 

Sunday 1 March

Diving into Glass

With Caro Llewellyn / chaired by Sophie Black

10.45am West Stage

In 2009, Caro Llewellyn was living her best life, Director of the PEN World Voices Festival in New York, mixing with the global literati.  Then one day, whilst jogging in Central Park, her legs went numb.  She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two days later.  Diving into Glass tells the glittering before and the confronting after of that terrible time, but also her life growing up in Adelaide, detailing the impressive example of living with disability she was set by her father, and the powerful bond that they shared.

PLEASE NOTE

This session has been modified following Tommy Orange’s decision to cancel his appearances to Adelaide Writers’ Week, Perth Festival and Melbourne – City of Literature due to family reasons. We apologise for the disappointment, and hope to welcome him at a later date. His session is replaced with Caro Llewellyn with ‘Diving into Glass’.

 

Sunday 1 March

Weird, Wild, Amazing!

with Tim Flannery / chaired by Clare Sawyer

 

12pm Torrens Tent

 

Join one of the world’s greatest living scientists, Tim Flannery, for an exploration of all that is wild and wonderful about our unique planet and its inhabitants.  Tim’s first book for younger readers, Explore Your World: Weird, Wild & Amazing, is stuffed full of incredible facts and spectacular illustrations that take us on a fascinating and highly entertaining journey across the globe. 

PLEASE NOTE

Bruce Pascoe will be unable to attend this year’s Perth and Adelaide Festivals due to the recent fires which have caused significant damage to his property and surrounding area in East Gippsland. Bruce has made the difficult decision to scale back his various commitments so he can focus on addressing the damage on his property and assist in the recovery efforts in his local community.

 

Monday 2 March

Twilight Talks: Authorial Voice

With Damian Barr, Chike Frankie Edozien, Robyn Archer / hosted by Benjamin Law

7pm West Stage

As the sun sets, the heat recedes and work is done for the day, the bar is open in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden and the Authorial Voice couch is the place to be. Australia’s most charming raconteur Benjamin Law is host of Twilight Talks’ favourite new event, enticing some of Writers’ Week’s most intriguing guests to join him on the couch for an all-bases conversation on books, life, and the State of the World.

Competing for attention is the all-Queer, all-star line-up of Damian Barr, himself host of London’s most celebrated literary salon, Nigerian-American reporter, activist and memoirist Chiké Frankie Edozien and multi-award-winning singer, writer, artistic director and public advocate for the arts, Robyn Archer.

PLEASE NOTE

This session has been modified following Andrea Lawlor’s decision to cancel their appearances to Adelaide Writers’ Week due to family reasons.

 

Wednesday 4 March

Ripped from the headlines

with Tony Jones / chaired by Victoria Purman

9.30am East Stage

Terrorism, Canberra power struggles, international intrigue: they feature in our headlines and in the latest offerings from renowned Australian journalist Tony Jones. Tony Jones’ pacey thrillers The Twentieth Man and In Darkness Visible traverse global conflagrations and Australian macho politics.

PLEASE NOTE

Unfortunately Heather Rose had to withdrew her participation to Adelaide Writers' Week for health reasons. We hope to welcome her to our festival in the future.

 

Wednesday 4 March

The Art of the Essay

with Sophie Cunningham, Ashley Hay and Charlotte Wood / chaired by Clare Wright

9.30am West Stage

A well-crafted essay can pack a real punch – be a potent narrative, or an illuminating portrait, or make an important contribution to a debate.  It enables long-form investigations or interrogations of subjects in ways that can set agendas or be intimacy-fuelled expositions.  Leading Australian writers Sophie Cunningham (City of Trees), Charlotte Wood (The Weekend, The Writer’s Room) and Ashley Hay (Griffith Review) discuss the craft behind and impact of a good essay.

PLEASE NOTE

Unfortunately Elliot Perlman won't make it to Writers' Week. His session Maybe the Horse will Talk will be replaced with the panel described above.

 

Wednesday 4 March

How Does Adelaide Keep Up?

With George Megalogenis / chaired by Sophie Cunningham

10.45am East Stage

In 2019, 28,926 young South Australians left Adelaide in search of adventure and work, one third of them heading to Victoria.  What are the implications of this steady exodus of our young people?  George Megalogenis warns that Adelaide is at risk of entering the “grey zone”, when people aged 65 and over outnumber children under the age of 15, and that we are also losing our share of migrants to the nation’s fastest growing city, Melbourne.  What can Adelaide do to ensure it catches the new wave of migration from China and India, and maintains a vibrancy and amenity that retains our young?

PLEASE NOTE

Jung Chang can no longer attend her session at Adelaide Writers’ Week due to illness. Her session is replaced by George Megalogenis with “How Does Adelaide Keep Up?”

 

Wednesday 4 March

The Great Anzac Cooption: Myth, History and National Identity

With Romain Fathi and Wayne Macauley / chaired by Dennis Altman

5pm West Stage

Despite European nations suffering significantly greater casualties in relative and real terms, Australia spent more money on the commemorations of the century since WW1 than any other country. What is behind the enthusiastic promotion of the Anzac myth as central to our national identity? With lacerating humour, Wayne Macauley examines the gap between history and mythology in his contemporary reimagining of the story of Simpson and his donkey, Simpson Returns. In Our Corner of the Somme, Romain Fathi details the pragmatic underpinnings of the selection of Villers-Bretonneux as a site of Australian commemoration.

PLEASE NOTE

This session has been modified following Andrea Lawlor’s decision to cancel their appearances to Adelaide Writers’ Week due to family reasons. We apologise for the disappointment. Their session is replaced with The Great Anzac Cooption: Myth, History and National Identity with Romain Fathi and Wayne Macauley.