Nicole Abadee

Nicole Abadee is a journalist and event moderator who has worked largely in the books industry since 2010, following her first career in the law, as a barrister.

Nicole appears regularly as a moderator at writers’ festivals around Australia,  including Sydney Writers’ Festival,  Adelaide Writers’ Week, Canberra Writers’ Festival, Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival and the Rose Scott Women Writers’ Festival.

In 2025, she was a moderator at The Edinburgh International Book Festival, where she interviewed French writer Jean-Baptiste Andrea about his book Watching Over Her, winner of the Prix Goncourt. 

In 2026, she will be a moderator there again.

She has interviewed international writers including Richard Ford, Colum McCann and Bonnie Garmus, and Australian writers including Helen Garner, Geraldine Brooks, Kate Grenville, Suzie Miller, Anna Funder, Markus Zusak, Trent Dalton and Shankari Chandran.

Nicole was a literary judge for the 2022 and 2021 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, for the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction.

Nicole is also a journalist. She writes about books and writers for Good Weekend, Spectrum, Australian Book Review and Australian Book Review, and she writes profiles of interesting women for Harper’s Bazaar Australia. She also moderates the successful Harper’s Bazaar Women of Influence events.