Writers’ Week director ‘disappointed’ after two Ukrainian authors pull out, another sponsor quits

The Adelaide Festival has lost another sponsor as the controversy grows over Writers’ Week, with a third considering cutting ties – and two Ukrainian authors pulling out.

The director of Adelaide Festival Writers’ Week has defended the inclusion of a controversial guest after two Ukrainian authors pulled out of the event.

Ukrainian authors Kateryna Babkina and Olesya Khromeychuk withdrew from Writers’ Week in protest at its inclusion of Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa, who has repeatedly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and attacked its President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Poet and novelist Babkina and historian Khromeychuk were due to take part in a talk titled Safe in an Unsafe World via streaming from London, where they are now based in exile, on March 5.

The talk’s moderator, Ukrainian-Jewish-Australian writer Maria Tumarkin, has also withdrawn from the event.

Writers’ Week director Louise Adler said she was “disappointed” that Babkina and Khromeychuk pulled out over the involvement of Abulhawa, who will appear in person at two sessions.

Louise Adler is the new director of Writers' Week. Picture: Kristoffer Paulsen

“They wrote to me directly that they couldn’t take part in a writers’ festival that included Susan Abulhawa, given her comments on Twitter,” Ms Adler told The Advertiser.

“I found that disappointing. I worked with Maria Tumarkin to create a context for writers, Ukrainian writers specifically, to be given an opportunity to talk about their experience as writers in this period of the invasion, and to contextualise the life they lead as writers in Ukraine.

“It’s also disappointing that writers take exception to an individual’s Twitter feeds, rather than their three published novels.”

Abulhawa has said President Zelensky “is trying to ignite World War III”.

She has also written on Twitter that Zelensky is “mad and far more dangerous than Putin” while backing the Russian president’s call to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.

Ms Adler doubled down on her decision to include Abulhawa and Palestinian author Mohammed El-Kurd, whose involvement has outraged the Australian Jewish community.

El-Kurd has described Zionists on Twitter as being “sadistic” and accused Jews of having “an unquenchable thirst for Palestinian blood & land”.

Susan Abulhawa speaks at a 2014 Palestine Festival of Literature event. Picture: Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

Mohammed el-Kurd.

Ms Adler said authors were selected for Writers’ Week on the basis of their published works, not their social media comments.

“There are big themes that we are thinking about … we are talking about homelands, about dispossession, about home and country and land and exile,” Ms Adler said.

She said those themes were “tragically of immediate importance, whether we are talking about the invasion by Russia of Ukraine, or talking about the occupation of Palestine”.

Meanwhile, another Festival sponsor has pulled its future support for the event as fallout continues from the inclusion of Abulhawa.

Information technology company Capgemini has informed the Festival that, while its agreement for this year’s event remains intact, it will not be renewing its sponsorship next year.

It follows major sponsor and national law firm MinterEllison’s decision to have its branding removed from all Writers’ Week and Festival events.

Business management consultancy PwC is also understood to be considering its support as the Festival’s pro-bono auditor.

Festival chief executive Kath Mainland confirmed on Tuesday that MinterEllison had requested its name and logo be removed from Writers’ Week programs, banners and other associated events.