March 10, 2026 — 7:07pm
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The Sydney Writers’ Festival has unveiled its 2026 lineup, promising to facilitate “brave conversations” on contested issues in an age of misinformation and disinformation.
Under the theme Show me the Truth, some of the biggest names in literature, non-fiction, and journalism – including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, spy novelist Mick Herron and three Booker Prize winners – are set to appear in Australia.
Sydney Writers’ Festival artistic director Ann Mossop.Dominic Lorrimer
The announcement comes as writers’ festivals across the country face high-profile resignations, open letters, petitions and cancellations amid conflict in the Middle East.
On the eve of the program launch, the Jewish Board of Deputies confirmed it was writing to all festival sponsors and corporate supporters to make them aware of the participation of Palestinian-Australian author and academic Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah in two sessions.
In the letter, chief executive Michele Goldman encourages supporters to reflect on whether Abdel-Fattah’s public positions align with their corporate values and if support for her participation is “likely to strengthen or erode social cohesion in Sydney” following the 2025 Bondi shootings.
However, festival artistic director Ann Mossop said writers’ festivals have a duty to explore questions of truth, even when the process feels difficult.
“We all have an understanding of truth in our daily lives, but the moment you go beyond that, there are layers of uncertainty that come into play and questions of partial truths and multiple truths,” Mossop said.
She emphasised that the festival is not trying to pin down a single approach, but was bringing together “brilliant writers of fiction, philosophy, history, poetry, science and memoir” to show how truth functions in their work.
As first reported by this masthead, Abdel-Fattah will appear in conversation with literary academic Bernadette Brennan about her first adult novel, Discipline.
In a second, same day appearance, she will join Michael Mohammed Ahmad, founder of the Sweatshop Literacy Movement, and journalist Antoinette Lattouf for a “critical dialogue about the things we aren’t allowed to say, but do”.
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A decision by the board of Adelaide Writers’ Week this year to withdraw an invitation to Abdel-Fattah sparked a writers’ boycott and triggered the event’s eventual cancellation.
The author had come under fire for past social media posts stating that Zionists had “no claim to cultural safety” – comments she maintains were taken out of context. She was also criticised for posting an illustration of a paraglider the day after the October 2023 Hamas attack; she has since stated she was not aware of the scale of the attack at the time of the post.
The festival program includes six Town Hall events featuring Jimmy Wales’ elaborating on ways to fight misinformation, as well as an appearance by the hugely popular contemporary fantasy writer R.F. Kuang (Yellowface). The substance of Australian politics behind the political spin will be analysed by Barrie Cassidy, Amy Remeikis, Sean Kelly and Waleed Aly.
Other international guests include New York bestseller Lily King, Booker Prize judge Roddy Doyle, Yann Martel, and last year’s Booker winner, David Szalay. Featured Australian writers include former politicians Tony Abbott and Bob Carr, chef Stephanie Alexander, novelist Charlotte Wood and poet Evelyn Araluen.
Palestinian writer and academic Tareq Baconi will talk to his political and sexual awakening via his memoir, Fire in Every Direction.
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Patrick Radden Keefe will also speak to his 2026 work, London Falling, a searing look at how the British capital became a hub for illicit wealth. Celebrated novelist and environmental thinker Amitav Ghosh (The Ghost Eye) will lead discussions on the intersection of colonialism, climate change and global inequality.
In a session aimed at demonstrating how people with fundamentally different views can share a room, Monash University academics Fareed Zaid and Daniel Heller will moderate a discussion between News Corp columnist Greg Sheridan, Antoinette Lattouf and Waleed Aly.
Mossop said counting the number of Palestinian versus Jewish authors did a disservice to festivals navigating a polarised world.
“Randa Abdel-Fattah is an important Sydney writer. She published a new book last August, Discipline, that is very much about people making their lives in Sydney dealing with difficult issues. We stand by that invitation.”
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Mossop emphasised that while the festival addresses Gaza and antisemitism – including a session titled After Bondi – it remained a broad celebration of the written word ranging in subject matter from poetry and cooking to the wars in Afghanistan and Ukraine. “What we are doing is absolutely business as usual for a writers’ festival,” she said. “It is not a single issue festival.”
Sydney Writers’ Festival runs from May 17 to 24 at Carriageworks.
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