About Adelaide Writers' Week - Adelaide Festival

About

Adelaide Writers’ Week is Australia’s largest free literary festival, offering both writers and readers a unique opportunity to spend time sharing ideas and literary explorations in a garden setting in Adelaide’s city centre. Each carefully selected program brings the world's most celebrated established and emerging writers together for a week that delights, surprises and enlightens audiences. Over the years, Adelaide Writers’ Week has seen some of the world’s greatest writers and thinkers in conversation about literature, politics, poetry, current events, biography, the short story and much, much more.

Each Adelaide Writers’ Week includes six days of free panel sessions that are presented live in the gardens, and made available online via podcast. The program also features a series of ticketed special events throughout the year, and the popular free Young Readers' Day, which attracts hundreds of families for fun and engaging literary adventures.

Louise Adler is the current Director of Adelaide Writers' Week and presented her first program in 2023.

When is the AWW program announced?

A first look at the 2025 program is available here. The final AWW program schedule will be published in February 2025.

I am a writer. Can I appear at AWW?

Thank you for your interest in appearing at Writers’ Week. Invitations are issued at the discretion of the Artistic Director. Our programme is curated to include recent writing from both Australian and international authors. We work with established publishing houses who connect us with authors. We recommend that you contact your publisher to make a recommendation.

I am self-published. Can I appear at AWW?

Each year Adelaide Writers’ Week receives many unsolicited submissions. There are so many wonderful books published every year that we have had to make the tough decision not to accept unsolicited proposals. We are not able to respond to submissions or return materials sent for consideration.

I am a writer. How do I get my work published?

If you need advice on getting your book published, please visit the websites of Writers SA, The Australian Society of Authors or the Australian Publishers Association.

How do I contact authors in your program?

We are unable to pass on contact details for authors and cannot pass on messages. You can contact authors through their publishers.

Previous Writers' Week Podcasts

Listen to the podcasts from Adelaide Writers' Week 2024 HERE

Future AWW dates

1 - 6 Mar 2025

28 Feb - 5 Mar 2026

Adelaide Festival and Adelaide Writers’ Week acknowledge the rights of individuals to hold different and divergent views. Views held by our writers are not necessarily the views of the organisation. We respect freedom of speech and the respectful exchange of ideas. We will not tolerate any behaviour that is insulting, against the law, or racist in any form, and we have a zero-tolerance policy regarding racism towards our staff, artists, audiences, and the communities we serve. We will not permit commentary during our festival that is insulting or racist.