The 2017 Adelaide Writers' Week full program has been released and is set to be more controversial than usual, with topics like the refugee crisis, war, feminism and cultural identity featuring heavily.

Festival director Laura Kroetsch said she thought the program was a "little bit more political than it has been in the past".

"I don't think that was intentional on my part, or maybe I wasn't consciously thinking about it, but it does certainly seem to reflect the world we live in," she said.

"We have some really interesting journalists coming this year … to talk about the Middle East, about Pakistan and about Syria … [and] about the Palestinians living in the West Bank."

Ms Kroetsch said she wanted the 2017 festival to focus on telling personal stories.

"One of the things I really wanted to do this year was to make sure that when we told the stories of history and current events, we told them through the stories of individuals," she said.

"I think it can be a blur otherwise.

"I think it's also very much reflected in the fiction. There's a lot of historical fiction in the program."

Its release has also revealed an additional 29 local and international names to those originally announced in October, including Nathan Hill (United States), Graeme Macrae Burnet (United Kingdom), Giulia Enders (Germany), Kate Grenville (New South Wales) and Patrick Allington (South Australia).

Irish writer Sebastian Barry a festival 'superstar'

Other writers to attend include UK journalist and war correspondent Patrick Cockburn, Irish playwright and novelist Sebastian Barry and Australian broadcaster Richard Fidler.

Ms Kroetsch said she believed Sebastian Barry would be a superstar.

Irish writer Sebastian Barry is among those visiting Adelaide for Writers' Week. ( Supplied: Irish Times )

"Sebastian is a very charming man and the novel [Days Without End] is a real triumph," she said.

"It is shocking and it's a beautiful love story between two men set between the American Indian Wars and the American Civil War.

"I think he will be one of those writers we all fall slightly in love with and rush out to pore over his book."

She said she was also hoping people discovered Canadian author Madelaine Thien.

"[Thien] was here a couple of years ago on the edge of stardom and she comes back with a novel called Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which is a historical novel set in China from the revolution to Tiananmen Square," Ms Kroetsch said.

The 2017 festival has been dedicated to Australian writer Elizabeth Harrower, author of The Long Prospect and The Watch Tower.

"Her work until very recently had disappeared and had been out of print for over 40 years," Ms Kroetsch said.

"It's all back in print and she's enjoying a second career. She's been lauded internationally and written up in the New Yorker.

"For us to be able to give her an Adelaide audience will be the biggest, proudest thing I do this festival."

The 2017 Adelaide Writers' Week will be held at the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden in the CBD from March 4 to March 9.