Adelaide Writers' Week (AWW), South Australia's prominent annual literary festival, has appointed Rosemarie Milsom as its new director following a turbulent collapse earlier this year. The festival's previous director, Louise Adler, resigned after the festival's board overrode her decision and disinvited Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah over her comments on Israel and Zionism — a move that triggered a boycott by around 200 writers and the subsequent resignation of the entire board. Milsom, who built the Newcastle Writers' Festival from scratch in 2013 and successfully navigated similar political pressure over the same author, said she accepted the role only after confirming the new board had committed to curatorial independence, calling strong governance the essential lesson from Adelaide's implosion.