Adelaide Writers' Week

Chaired by Sharon Davis

On 19 November, 2020, the Chief of the Australian Defence Force stood in front of our nation and apologised to another: “To the people of Afghanistan,” said Angus Campbell, “on behalf of the Australian Defence Force, I sincerely and unreservedly apologise for any wrongdoing by Australian soldiers.” He spoke on the release of the findings of the Brereton Inquiry into War Crimes. Samantha Crompvoets’s work triggered that report and is outlined in Blood Lust, Trust & Blame. Mark Willacy reported first on the crimes it investigated, detailed in Rogue Forces.

Chaired by Nick Ryan

Following the shocking news of Shane Warne’s untimely death overnight on Friday, a session to remember Shane's oversized talent, personality and legacy to cricket.  Cricbuzz’s Bharat Sundaresan and Sydney Morning Herald’s Malcolm Knox sit down with Nick Ryan to remember the man described as the greatest leg spinner the world has ever known and the immense contribution he made to the game.

Chaired by Jennifer Mills

A welcome discovery for many at the 2019 Adelaide Writers’ Week, British powerhouse poet and performer Joelle Taylor returns with her new collection C+NTO and Othered Poems. The winner of the 2021 T.S. Eliot Prize, this visceral and emotional collection was named by New Statesman as the poetry book of 2021 and described as “one of the most astonishing and original poetry collections of recent years”. Simultaneously intimate and epic, its riveting exploration of gender confirms Joelle as one of the key chroniclers of her community and times.

Chaired by Michael Williams.

In best-selling author Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees, star-crossed lovers Greek Christian Kostas and Turkish Muslim Defne navigate the violence of the partition of Cyprus to eventually find safety in London. Elif’s last novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, was short-listed for the Booker Prize. This stunningly original follow-up is a beautifully crafted story of love, loss and belonging, infused with the humanity and heart that is the hallmark of Elif’s acclaimed writings.

Co-presented by The Wheeler Centre.

Chaired by Victoria Purman.

The transformative excitement of university life has been little mined by Australian fiction. In their immensely readable and impressively complex debut novels, Diana Reid and Indyana Schneider explore that most liminal time of campus life to excellent effect. Diana’s Love and Virtue traverses feminism, sexuality and the precocious intellectualism of first year life on a Sydney campus. Indyana Schneider weaves music, literature, art, dance, sex and the exquisite pain and pleasure of first love into student life at Oxford.

Chaired by Tom Wright.

AFL is one of Australia’s most popular sports and the only one we can claim as indigenous. According to The Boys’ Club, a jaw-dropping account of the scandals that have beset the AFL over the last twenty years, it is also managed by a ruthlessly entitled Melbourne-based executive that operates with a stunning lack of transparency and accountability. Michael Warner takes us behind the scenes and into the inner workings of the AFL to reveal how it became one of the richest and most powerful organisations in the country.

Chaired by Ben Brooker.

Patrick Radden Keefe’s remarkable Say Nothing documented the Troubles in Northern Ireland and was named by The New York Times as one of the best books of 2019. His follow up is Empire of Pain, an equally powerful account of the opioid crisis gripping America and the family that created it and continues to profit from it. Patrick meticulously chronicles the rise of the Sackler family, whose company invented the highly addictive OxyContin, and damns a country too cowed by money to protect its own citizens.

Chaired by Cath Kenneally.

Holly lives a simple life in America when a Facebook message from across the seas and decades brings her past hurtling back, a past of trauma, abuse and terrible sadness. As she slowly excavates her life, as Holly, as Jo, as Maggie, we explore the courage and desperation it takes to reinvent a life once, twice, thrice. A book of great empathy, heartbreak and devastating beauty, Jennifer Down's Bodies of Light asks how much trauma a person can bear, and how one can find a way to live with it.

Chaired by Paul Barclay.

Three high profile lawyers discuss how they use their legal practice to advance important causes. David Barnden represented the students in Sharma v Minister for the Environment (2021) which found that Minister Ley had a duty of care to the next generation. Michael Bradley’s clients include survivors of sexual violence, Indian Australians locked out of Australia, and refugees imprisoned in Australian hotels. Terri Janke’s True Tracks framework of Indigenous cultural and intellectual property principles has been transformative for the protection of communities’ copyright and the prevention of cultural theft.

Chaired by Geordie Williamson.

Charlotte McConaghy’s follow-up to her intense and acclaimed The Last Migration is Once There Were Wolves. Biologist Inti Flynn returns to Scotland with her twin sister Aggie on a quest to reintroduce fourteen grey wolves to the remote Highlands. Facing opposition from the local farmers, Inti’s project becomes increasingly challenging. And then a local farmer turns up dead. A compelling combination of literary fiction and murder mystery, Once There Were Wolves is lush, vivid and propulsively gripping.