Why we cancelled our Bendigo Writers Festival panel

I was so looking forward to this weekend’s Bendigo Writers Festival, where I was meant to join Madison Griffiths and Cher Tan as part of the Cities of Literature Book Club to discuss Looking at Women Looking at War by the late Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina.

However, following the decisions and actions of Festival and Presenting Partner La Trobe University this week, and in solidarity with fellow participating writers, we no longer feel able to take part.

In a group statement withdrawing our participation, our panel wrote:

We were dismayed to learn that our colleagues in the Festival’s La Trobe Presents sessions were told they would be required to abide by La Trobe’s Anti-Racism Plan, including definitions of antisemitism and Islamophobia that would inhibit criticism of Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

While we were not included in this cohort, we feel unable to participate in a framework that restricts authors’ freedom of expression – particularly given the subject of our panel was to be about writing and war crimes, rights and resistance, through the lens of Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina’s war and justice diary (published posthumously after she herself became a victim of Russia’s war crimes). 

As mentioned in our previous emails, we planned to have a conversation about the role of writers in documenting and being on the receiving end of war crimes. While Amelina’s book would have grounded that conversation in Ukraine, we agreed to take part in the panel on the understanding that the discussion would inevitably extend to Israel’s war crimes in Palestine, and to the censorship and complicity of Australia’s own arts organisations, mainstream media, and war stenographers in enabling the genocide of Palestinians to continue.

In line with the Code of Conduct for Bendigo Writers Festival Speakers received from you this afternoon, we planned to approach these topics with care, balance and respect, and in no way consider them to be inflammatory or divisive – particularly at a time when being a writer has never been more dangerous. 

In the 10 years of its war against Ukraine, Russia has killed more than 220 members of Ukraine’s literary community (up to January 2025). In the last two years alone, Israel has killed nearly 270 journalists and media workers in Gaza (more than were killed in World Wars 1 and 2, and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Ukraine combined). This made 2024 the deadliest year for writers since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting data over 30 years ago. 70% of those killed were killed by Israel. Which is important because, as Amelina reminds us, the second rule of war reportage is to explicitly name who is responsible: ‘The perpetrators must be identified along with the degree of their involvement.’

We are appalled that another writers festival has made the choice to censor the very writers it relies upon, and in such a rushed and clumsy manner that will cause harm to its authors, audiences and the Festival’s own credibility and viability.

Choosing to notify writers the day before the Festival will have a negative impact on speakers’ already-limited incomes, as well as the Festival’s own income through loss of ticket sales. Choosing to do so in a way that endorsed the controversial Universities Australia definition of antisemitism (a month after the Australian Federal Court ruling that anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic) risks the Festival’s reputation, governance and duty of care. And following those decisions with a disingenuous email that downplayed speakers’ concerns and implied that their inability to accept La Trobe’s definition of wellbeing or safety meant the speakers themselves were unsafe was unfair, harmful, and risks damaging the Festival’s ability to program in the future.

Although we are extremely disappointed to lose the opportunity to speak on these issues, we cannot in good conscience appear at the Festival while Palestinian and First Nations colleagues have been particularly targeted to toe a pro-Israel (or at best, Israel-neutral) line. Further, due to how this has played out, we no longer feel confident that we would be able to discuss these issues in a safe and supported manner that underpins our responsibilities as writers during this critical period in time. 

After our close reading of Looking at Women, Looking at War, we feel Amelina would have made a similarly principled stand. As she writes early in her book, ‘history does not leave me [or us] with much choice’.

Always was, always will be. Slava Ukraini. And Free Palestine.

My heart goes out to all of the programmed authors, ticket-holders, BWF team and collaborators, Lviv and Melbourne Cities of Literature, and everyone who wanted to hear these important conversations. But we can – and we must – do better.

Read more in ArtsHub.

Further reading: Palestine as a governance issue

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Author: katelarsenkeys

Writer. Rabble-rouser. Arts, Cultural and Non-Profit Consultant.