Louise Adler resigns as director of Adelaide writers’ week

Exclusive: Writing for Guardian Australia, Adler says she ‘cannot be party to silencing writers’ after Adelaide festival board cancelled Randa Abdel-Fattah’s invitation to appear

• Louise Adler: I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I am resigning as director of Adelaide writers’ week

• Peter Greste: If we silence voices we don’t agree with, we’re doing the work of extremists for them

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The director of Adelaide writers’ week, Louise Adler, has resigned after the board of the Adelaide festival announced it had dumped the Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from the literary event.

“I cannot be party to silencing writers, so with a heavy heart I am resigning from my role as the director of the AWW,” said Adler, one of Australia’s most influential literary figures.