Adelaide Writers' Week, held in the capital of South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

 and considered one of the world's pre-eminent literary events, is a traditional part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts

Adelaide Festival of Arts

The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...

 fortnight where attendees meet and discuss literature with Australian and international writers in "Meet the Author" sessions, readings and lectures. It is held in Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

's Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden

Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden

The Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden is a tribute to the pioneer women of South Australia. The garden was designed by landscape designer Elsie Cornish and the statue created by Ola Cohn was unveiled by Lady Muriel Barclay-Harvey on 19 April 1941.The main entrance is located on King William Road...

 and is free to the public.

2008

2008's Writers' Week was held between 2 March and 7 March 2008 and featured a number of prize-winning authors, including Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan

Ian Russell McEwan CBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist and screenwriter, and one of Britain's most highly regarded writers. In 2008, The Times named him among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"....

, Peter Carey, Paul Auster

Paul Auster

Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...

, Geraldine Brooks, and Tim Parks

Tim Parks

Tim Parks is a British novelist, translator and author.-Life:Tim Parks was born in Manchester in 1954, the son of a clergyman. He grew up in Finchley , London and was educated at Cambridge University and Harvard. He has lived near Verona in Italy since 1981...

. Other notable authors included feminist Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....

, British historian Richard Holmes

Richard Holmes (military historian)

Brigadier Edward Richard Holmes, CBE, TD, JP , known as Richard Holmes, was a British soldier and noted military historian, particularly well-known through his many television appearances...

, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 native Roma Tearne

Roma Tearne

Roma Tearne is a Sri Lankan born artist and writer. Her first novel, Mosquito, has been shortlisted for the 2007 Costa Book Awards first Novel prize.-Art:...

, and American author Siri Hustvedt

Siri Hustvedt

Siri Hustvedt is an American novelist and essayist. Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, five novels, two books of essays, and a work of non-fiction...

. Australian authors included poet and novelist David Malouf

David Malouf

David George Joseph Malouf is an acclaimed Australian writer. He was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2000, his 1993 novel Remembering Babylon won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, he won the inaugural Australia-Asia Literary Award in 2008, and he was...

, Robyn Davidson

Robyn Davidson

Robyn Davidson is an Australian writer best known for her book Tracks, about a 1,700-mile trek across the deserts of west Australia using camels. Her career of travelling and writing about her travels has spanned over 30 years....

, Tumby Bay native Kate Llewellyn, Matt Rubinstein, Looking for Alibrandi

Looking for Alibrandi

Looking for Alibrandi is a 1999 Australian film written by Melina Marchetta based on the novel of the same name. The film sets in the 1990s Sydney, New South Wales and starring Australian actors, including Pia Miranda as Josephine Alibrandi, the film's main character, Anthony LaPaglia as her...

author Melina Marchetta

Melina Marchetta

Melina Marchetta is an Australian writer and teacher. She is the middle child of three daughters. Melina is best known as the author of Looking For Alibrandi. She has twice been awarded the CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers, in 1993 and 2004.- Biography :Melina Marchettaborn in Sydney on 25...

, and actor and novelist William McInnes

William McInnes

William McInnes is an Australian film and television actor and writer.-Television:After a recurring role on A Country Practice in 1990, McInnes appeared in series such as Bligh, Ocean Girl, and Snowy before making his name as Senior Constable Nick Schultz on Blue Heelers in 1994...

.

2006

2006's Writers' Week focused on Dutch

Culture of the Netherlands

Dutch culture, or the culture of the Netherlands, is diverse, reflecting regional differences as well as the foreign influences thanks to the merchant and exploring spirit of the Dutch and the influx of immigrants...

 and Indian

Indian literature

Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognized languages....

 writing and was held between the 5 March and 10 March 2006. Notable visiting authors included Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 winning author Michael Cunningham

Michael Cunningham

Michael Cunningham is an American writer, best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999.-Early life and education:...

, crime novelists Val McDermid

Val McDermid

Val McDermid is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of suspense novels starring her most famous creation, Dr. Tony Hill.-Biography:...

, Andrew Taylor

Andrew Taylor (author)

Andrew Taylor is a British author best known for his crime novels, which include the Dougal series, the Lydmouth series, the Roth Trilogy and the historical novel The American Boy.-Biography:...

 & Minette Walters

Minette Walters

Minette Walters is an English crime writer.- Life and work :After her birth in Bishop’s Stortford to a serving army officer, Capt Samuel Jebb and his wife Colleen, the first 10 years of Minette’s life were spent moving between army bases in the north and south of England...

 and Indian author Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.-Early life:Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 to Leila and Prem Seth in Calcutta...

. Australian authors included historian professor Geoffrey Blainey

Geoffrey Blainey

Geoffrey Norman Blainey AC , is a prominent Australian historian.Blainey was born in Melbourne and raised in a series of Victorian country towns before attending Wesley College and the University of Melbourne. While at university he was editor of Farrago, the newspaper of the University of...

 and Adelaidean Peter Goldsworthy

Peter Goldsworthy

Peter Goldsworthy AM is an Australian writer and medical practitioner. He has won awards for his short stories, poetry, novels, and opera libretti....

2005

In 2005, visiting authors included Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende Llona is a Chilean writer with American citizenship. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts , which have been commercially successful...

, Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

, Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell

Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an English crime writer, author of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries....

 and Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson

Neal Town Stephenson is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction.Difficult to categorize, his novels have been variously referred to as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk...

.

See also

• South Australian Living Artists Festival
  South Australian Living Artists Festival
  The South Australian Living Artists Festival is an annual free visual arts festival in the city of Adelaide.The SALA festival includes open art studios, moving-image based art, and public art events across South Australia....
  
  
• Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature
  Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature
  The Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature were established in 1986 and are an initiative of the Government of South Australia, managed through . They are granted biennially to the judged-best authors in Australian children’s literature, fiction, innovation, non-fiction and poetry...
  
  

External links

• Website for the 2004 Adelaide Festival