Tamara Zimet has been appointed artistic director of the Sydney Writers’ Festival, bringing one of Australia’s leading literary curators home from Scotland.

It marks a full-circle moment for Zimet, who started her programming career at Sydney Writers’ Festival a decade ago before joining the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2020, to oversee one of the world’s largest literary festivals.

The 38-year-old takes the reins after a challenging few years for writers’ festivals. Programming decisions have come under increased scrutiny, most dramatically earlier this year when Adelaide Writers’ Week was cancelled – more than 180 authors withdrew from the program following the board’s decision to disinvite Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Outgoing Sydney Writers’ Festival artistic director Ann Mossop subsequently programmed Abdel-Fattah, and the May iteration went on to record the highest sales figures in its 29-year history.

Zimet said writers’ festivals should be places to explore thorny ideas and hear views that challenge their audiences.

“A writers’ festival is a forum where complexity can be explored. Disagreement isn’t harm. It’s an opportunity to connect with ideas and with the writers who bring these to life,” she said.

“Sydney Writers’ Festival has always supported freedom of expression, and the whole idea of it is to create a platform for a nuanced discussion on a wide range of topics.”

Originally from Melbourne, Zimet joined Sydney Writers’ Festival as a program co-ordinator in 2016 before being promoted to associate director in 2018, co-curating the event. She also founded Broadside, a two-day feminist ideas festival, for Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre in 2019.

She moved to Edinburgh during the pandemic in 2020 to join the Edinburgh International Book Festival, rising through its ranks to become the director of programming in 2024.

The 16-day Edinburgh festival, now under way, is one of the world’s best-attended literary festivals, bringing together more than 500 writers in 600 events this year.

The appointment is the latest move in a game of musical chairs at Australia’s writers’ festivals: Rosemarie Milsom has taken the helm at Adelaide Writers’ Week following Louise Adler’s resignation, while Amy Lovat has replaced Milsom as director of the Newcastle Writers Festival.

Zimet said she was returning to a very different Sydney Writers’ Festival from the one where she started a decade ago – and that was part of the attraction.

“Now when the discourse is so fast and the news cycle turns over so quickly, I think people are really hungry for nuance and complexity,” she said.

“I think there’s also something in the last couple of years in particular, I think it’s so important to be able to expose yourself to ideas or beliefs that you don’t necessarily agree with, but you still have the chance to evolve your own perspective and change your mind. I think that that’s also what literature does for us more broadly.”

Zimet said she wanted to bring an international outlook to the program without losing its distinctly Sydney character. She is also keen to explore the role of artificial intelligence, and what it means for writers and readers.

“It’s not a festival that you could just transplant into another Australian city. It’s not a festival you can transplant into Edinburgh or Nairobi or wherever else it may be, because it feels very much steeped in a sense of place,” she said. “I think that’s really important and it makes it singular.”

She will relocate to Sydney with her partner, British book designer Jon Gray, to take up the role in November, virtually hitting the ground running as the 2027 program is announced in March.

One of the more practical challenges will be getting her own library here: relocating the enormous book collection she amassed over six years in Scotland, and finding room for the hundreds more still sitting in a storage container in Sydney.

“At some point after the book festival, we’re going to have a real conversation. There are some people and some couples, families and share houses that have a one-in, one-out policy, and we absolutely do not operate under that.”

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