Director Louise Adler AM today announces the first instalment of the 2026 Adelaide Writers’ Week program. Over 150 local and international writers will take part in this 65th year of conversations that celebrate the art of writing and the joy of reading. Australia’s only free literary festival will take place at the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens from 28 February to 5 March. There will also be a select series of ticketed events at Her Majesty’s Theatre, The Drill Hall, Adelaide Town Hall and Adelaide University’s Bonython Hall.
On the opening weekend, young readers and secondary school students will discover an exciting all-Australian line-up of literary voices and interactive storytelling to inspire a lifelong love of reading in young minds.
The Rt. Hon. Dame Jacinda Ardern, former prime minister of New Zealand and internationally recognised role model for empathetic leadership, will appear in conversation for one night only with the ABC’s 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson at Bonython Hall.
Six years ago, the internationally renowned BBC journalist Emily Maitlis interviewed Prince Andrew about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. With the world watching, the prince broke into an “impossible” sweat on-air, and it was only a matter of time before he found himself unemployed. Maitlis, now co-presenter of The News Agents podcast, joins the ABC’s If You’re Listening podcast host Matt Bevan at Bonython Hall to discuss THAT interview, and to explain why journalism remains such a powerful tool for comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.
Christiane Amanpour will appear via livestream to reflect on her time interviewing everyone from the Dalai Lama to Hillary Clinton, Ratko Mladić, Mohammad Khatami and Angela Merkel, as will renowned “media diva” and diarist Tina Brown, the former editor of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Tatler and The Daily Beast website, and author of The Diana Chronicles, The Vanity Fair Diaries and The Palace Papers.
Among the many other international literary luminaries attending are the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Award for Fiction winner Percival Everett, Booker Prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka, and Jonathan Coe, Yanis Varoufakis, Mariana Enriquez, Simon Winchester, Jonathan Freedland and Laila Lalami.
Australian authors include Andrew Denton, Hannah Ferguson, Tasma Walton, Jane Caro, Heather Rose, Hannah Kent, Chloe Hooper, Helen Garner, Melissa Lucashenko and Chris Hammer.
Trent Dalton will be honoured as ‘A Living National Treasure’ in a special closing event where he’ll discuss with Julia Baird his extraordinary career as a journalist and novelist, including his latest book Gravity Let Me Go.
Perennial favourite Breakfast with Papers returns each morning at 8am, when the ABC’s Jonathan Green and Guardian Australia’s Tory Shepherd will discuss the global and local events of the day with a changing line-up of guests.
David Speers will also return alongside a panel of Australia’s sharpest journalistic minds and political cartoonist Mike Bowers, to dissect the week’s political developments in a live version of Insiders.
New in 2026 is The Morning After The Night Before, featuring Tom Wright in conversation with Writers’ Week alumni as they review current Adelaide Festival shows. Tom will also host Adelaide Festival’s daily AF Talks with festival artists and other creatives.
Every afternoon from 5pm to 6pm, Adelaide Writers’ Week presents The AWW Book Club, hosted by The Book Show producer Sarah L’Estrange and featuring one of the program’s literary greats. The event will be held in the AWW Green Room and is strictly limited to 20 participants.
The traditional AWW Great Debate will grapple with the idea that “you can never be too rich”, with team captains Annabel Crabb and David Marr, and panellists Kathy Lette, Ian Dunt, Toby Schmitz and Amy Remeikis, at the mercy of John Wells, who will keep everyone nice and determine the final verdict.
In 2026, poetry returns to the Adelaide Writers’ Week stage with a full-day program. During Poetry on the Green, poets will discuss their craft and read in a showcase curated by poet and renowned former host of ABC Radio National’s Poetica, Mike Ladd.
Antisemitism will be the subject of a discussion between eminent historian Mark Mazower and Guardian journalist and author Jonathan Freedland. It will be moderated by the presenter of ABC Radio National’s God Forbid podcast, James Carleton.
Will anyone ever make another beef Wellington? The case that gripped the nation is the subject of a conversation on ‘mushrooms, money, murder and marriage’. Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein tell Richard Fidler about their time in the Morwell media scrum and all that they discovered (and still don’t know) about Erin Patterson.
Mob Club celebrates First Nations women writers in a special day long program curated by Dominic Guerrera.
M Gessen, a convicted criminal in absentia according to Vladimir Putin, together with Tony Jones, explores how Putin, Trump and Netanyahu have used and abused language and exploited the proliferation of platforms to spread fear and distrust.
Other highlights include New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik; Harvard University history professor Jill Lepore, who will help us try to understand Trump’s America; world-renowned financial journalist and New York Times bestselling author Michael Lewis, of The Big Short and Moneyball fame; and the Irish author of the bestselling debut novel Nesting, Roisín O’Donnell.
The full program guide, along with the second and final author announcement, will be made available in late January.
Adelaide Writers’ Week Director Louise Adler AM said: “The opportunity to curate Adelaide Writers’ Week in 2026 is an honour. The extraordinary range of writers willing to join us in celebrating the joy of reading and writing continues to astonish me. But then, its appeal has for over 60 years been the informality of the glorious garden setting, the chance to savour over 150 of the very best conversations for free, the chance to meet beloved writers and encounter new ones, and the irresistible lure of Dillon's Booktent. It all makes the first week of March the place to be."
Adelaide Writers’ Week runs from 28 February – 5 March as part of Adelaide Festival, which runs from 27 February – 15 March, 2026.
