A whole host of local and international authors, writers and public thinkers will be decamping to Adelaide at the end of February for the 31st instalment of the Adelaide Writers’ Week; a week long celebration as part of the Adelaide Festival. The event will feature over 90 writers in conversation, across six days from the 27th February in Adelaide’s stunning Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden.
Organiser’s this week put the finishing touches to the line up, and announced a few final names. These final additions to an already stimulating line-up include, evolutionary biologist and writer Richard Dawkins, author Alexander McCall Smith, novelist and short story writer Lauren Groff and historian Simon Sebag Montefiore.
In her fifth year as Director, Laura Kroetsch said, “Of the many highlights in the 2016 Writers’ Week program, I am particularly delighted to be able to present so many accomplished short-story writers. Fiction is always a hallmark of this event and our line-up this year is just stellar.
“The 2016 program also includes what may be our finest line-up of biographers. This year will also see a host of excellent memoirs and fascinating conversations about contemporary issues including the Pacific, domestic terrorism, misogyny and Mother Russia.”
For the first time, the opening weekend of Adelaide Writers’ Week will be made available to audiences across the state via a live stream at participating libraries. The community event will be more accessible than ever before, allowing regional listeners to hear their favourite writer or discover someone entirely new.
The 2016 event is dedicated to one of Australia’s most distinguished biographers and literary critics, Brenda Niall, who will join previously honoured writers Robert Dessaix, Margo Lanagan, Christopher Koch and Alexis Wright.
The award-winning event will also bring together some of the world’s best contemporary writers and thinkers to discuss the subjects of memory, mavericks, strong women, politics and domestic terrorism.
The always popular Kids’ Weekend also returns with two massive days of stories, painting, parades and a giant mouse (naturally). Superstar children’s author Andy Griffiths will be one of the many writers gracing the Story Tent. Whilst Lucy Cousins will be accompanying her creation Maisy Mouse at a kid’s only mural-making session.
The Adelaide Writers’ Week 2016 hard copy program guide is available free of charge and can be collected from all good bookshops and participating newsagents and libraries across Adelaide from Thursday 28 January.
Alternatively the program, with the full line up, is available to download at adelaidefestival.com.au
———-
