A quote for January 2026.

I cannot be party to silencing writers so, with a heavy heart, I am resigning from my role as the director of the AWW [Adelaide Writers’ Week]. Writers and writing matters, even when they are presenting ideas that discomfort and challenge us.

We need writers now more than ever, as our media closes up, as our politicians grow daily more cowed by real power, as Australia grows more unjust and unequal.

AWW is the canary in the coalmine. Friends and colleagues in the arts, beware of the future.

They are coming for you.

—Louise Adler

From ‘I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I am resigning as director of Adelaide writers’ week,The Guardian, 13 January 2026.

Photography by Rey Seven.

Libby Hart

Libby Hart is an Australian poet who writes about the living world and the human experience. Her books include Burn, Wild, This Floating World and Fresh News from the Arctic. She is the editor of My Name Suspended in the Air, a centenary celebration of the Irish writer, Leland Bardwell.

https://libbyhartpoet.com
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Five things I’m loving in January.