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.