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Palestinian-Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah has already sold out her appearance at Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Randa Abdel-Fattah sells out Sydney Writers’ Festival appearance

The academic was sensationally dumped from Adelaide Writers’ Week in January, sending the festival into meltdown. Her Sydney appearance has already sold out.

  • John Buckley

Latest

Sydney Writers’ Festival promises ‘brave conversations’ in wake of Gaza controversy

The festival is staring down a letter-writing campaign targeting its sponsors as it announces a program of intellectual heft and big literary names.

  • Linda Morris
Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah will appear at Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Caught between audiences and supporters, arts companies face an uncertain future

Sydney Writers’ Festival is caught in an intractable bind that has major consequences for ideas and talks festivals across the country.

  • Linda Morris
A testing time for writers festivals.

How Adelaide’s writers’ week collapse is shaping Australia’s major literary festivals

The rancour surrounding the implosion of Adelaide Writers’ Week has meant all upcoming festivals in 2026 are risk-checking their programs.

  • Kerrie O'Brien and Linda Morris
Arts minister John Graham with State Librarian Caroline Butler-Bowdon and  Sydney Writers’ Festival CEO Brooke Webb.

‘Sydney is not a shallow city’: Major change for Sydney Writers’ Festival

The development is good news for writers – and their readers.

  • Linda Morris
Check out the head of hair.

Writers, I’m on your side – now here’s my list of complaints

Even as a forgiving reader, I have my quibbles.

  • Richard Glover
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Cardinal George Pell celebrates a special mass in Sydney’s St. Mary’s Cathedral in 2004.

Sky News’ favourite college opens Cardinal George Pell hall

Campion College, a small institution in western Sydney, is a safe space for conservatives.

  • Kishor Napier-Raman, Stephen Brook and Liam Mannix
Marian Keyes

Good food, good craic as bestselling author Marian Keyes gets real

Lunch with Marian Keyes is a revelation; sex, alcoholism, life and death. Nothing is off the table.

  • Margot Saville
Melbourne-based Nam Le wins NSW Premier’s Literary awards for the second time with his second book.

Sixteen years ago, Nam Le’s debut won a major literary prize. His follow-up has done it again

Australian-Vietnamese writer Nam Le has taken out book of the year at the 2025 NSW Literary Awards for a poetry collection he fought to get published.

  • Linda Morris
Butter, a cult Japanese bestseller by Asako Yuzuki inspired by the real-life case of a serial killer convicted of poisoning three of her male lovers, is being hailed overseas for its exploration of misogyny, fatphobia and sexism in modern Japan.

How a Japanese book about a woman who murders her lovers became a global phenomenon

Met with a muted reception in her native Japan, Asako Yuzuki’s Butter won fanfare around the world.

  • Thomas Mitchell