Resignations follow withdrawal of more than 70 participants in writers’ week after Palestinian Australian author disinvited

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The Adelaide festival is facing an unprecedented leadership crisis after three board members resigned this weekend.

The journalist Daniela Ritorto, the Adelaide businesswoman Donny Walford and the lawyer Nick Linke stepped down at an extraordinary board meeting on Saturday following the board’s controversial decision to dump the Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from the 2026 writers’ week program.