Randa Abdel-Fattah and Louise Adler on the cost of speaking out in a time of division
She's attracted controversy and cancellation, but Palestinian Australian author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah has not been deterred from speaking out about the plight of Palestinians in the war on Gaza, and the experience of Muslim Australians since 9/11. At this event organised in the wake of the cancellation of Adelaide Writers' Week, she joins that festival's former Director Louise Adler, to talk about her latest novel, Discipline, and the experience of art imitating life. This conversation was recorded at the Adelaide Town Hall as part of the Constellations: Not Writers' Week festival on 1 March 2026. Speakers Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah Author, Discipline (winner of the People's Choice Award at the 2026 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards), Does My Head Look Big in This? and Coming of Age in the War on Terror Future Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University Louise Adler (host) Former Director, Adelaide Writers' Week Former CEO, Melbourne University Press Former editor-at-large, Hachette Australia
Big Ideas · Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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Show Notes
She's attracted controversy and cancellation, but Palestinian Australian author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah has not been deterred from speaking out about the plight of Palestinians in the war on Gaza, and the experience of Muslim Australians since 9/11. At this event organised in the wake of the cancellation of Adelaide Writers' Week, she joins that festival's former Director Louise Adler, to talk about her latest novel, Discipline, and the experience of art imitating life.
This conversation was recorded at the Adelaide Town Hall as part of the Constellations: Not Writers' Week festival on 1 March 2026.
Speakers
Dr Randa Abdel-FattahAuthor, Discipline (winner of the People's Choice Award at the 2026 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards), Does My Head Look Big in This? and Coming of Age in the War on TerrorFuture Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University
Louise Adler (host) Former Director, Adelaide Writers' WeekFormer CEO, Melbourne University PressFormer editor-at-large, Hachette Australia