The Australian has reported that Randa Abdel-Fattah’s application for a $900 000 government grant cites “romance novels as research”.
Apparently, “a children’s picture book and young adult fiction novels were cited as ‘research achievements’,” in the application for the tax-payer funded grant of almost one million dollars.
The publication has questioned the application process, considering that “five out of six applicants… miss out on money.”
The controversial academic has come under scrutiny especially in the last six months, after a series of events which lead to the cancellation of Adelaide Writers’ Week earlier this year.
The Australian adds, “Taxpayers fund $170-an-hour transcription costs for Randa Abdel-Fattah’s research grant that lists children’s books and romance novels as scholarly achievements.”
The publication has described Abdel-Fattah as “Israel-hating”, due to her historical pro-Palestine comments.
It is further reports that “Public funds were also used to fly two American academics to Australia to attend a workshop about the 30-year-old play, The Politics of Belly-Dancing, at a cost of $6100.”
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Controversies over Randa Abdel-Fattah in 2026
Mediaweek reported in February that Abdel-Fattah will be featured in two parts of the Sydney Writers’ Festival program in 2026.
A statement from festival chief executive Brooke Webb and artistic director Ann Mossop said Abdel-Fattah is a “significant Sydney writer”, adding the festival holds “freedom of expression as a core value”.
The announcement came when Abdel-Fattah was earlier uninvited from Adelaide Writers’ Week after pressure from the South Australian government in light of the Bondi Beach massacre in December 2025.
The Premier and the Board of Adelaide Writers’ Week were both concerned that the author’s previous comments that Zionists “have no claim or right to cultural safety,” was especially sensitive in the aftermath of the largest mass shooting in Australian history.
Adding to that, Abdel-Fattah’s 2024 social media post resurfaced, where she said: “The goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony”, with a video claiming that Israel’s existence depended on violence against Palestinians.
In a statement in response to questions from ABC News about that comment, Abdel-Fattah said her “post made clear that I oppose the espousing of Zionist ideology [but] NEVER the unsafety of Jews”.