diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 33e452b38..d08e67f0f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -337,6 +337,7 @@ to use in most cases as it provides additional features:
 - Synchronous or asynchronous writes of messages to Kafka.
 - Asynchronous cancellation using contexts.
 - Flushing of pending messages on close to support graceful shutdowns.
+- Creation of a missing topic before publishing a message. *Note!* it was the default behaviour up to the version `v0.4.30`.
 
 ```go
 // make a writer that produces to topic-A, using the least-bytes distribution
@@ -369,6 +370,55 @@ if err := w.Close(); err != nil {
 }
 ```
 
+### Missing topic creation before publication
+
+```go
+// Make a writer that publishes messages to topic-A.
+// The topic will be created if it is missing.
+w := &Writer{
+    Addr:                   TCP("localhost:9092"),
+    Topic:                  "topic-A",
+    AllowAutoTopicCreation: true,
+}
+
+messages := []kafka.Message{
+    {
+        Key:   []byte("Key-A"),
+        Value: []byte("Hello World!"),
+    },
+    {
+        Key:   []byte("Key-B"),
+        Value: []byte("One!"),
+    },
+    {
+        Key:   []byte("Key-C"),
+        Value: []byte("Two!"),
+    },
+}
+
+var err error
+const retries = 3
+for i := 0; i < retries; i++ {
+    ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 10*time.Second)
+    defer cancel()
+    
+    // attempt to create topic prior to publishing the message
+    err = w.WriteMessages(ctx, messages...)
+    if errors.Is(err, LeaderNotAvailable) || errors.Is(err, context.DeadlineExceeded) {
+        time.Sleep(time.Millisecond * 250)
+        continue
+    }
+
+    if err != nil {
+        log.Fatalf("unexpected error %v", err)
+    }
+}
+
+if err := w.Close(); err != nil {
+    log.Fatal("failed to close writer:", err)
+}
+```
+
 ### Writing to multiple topics
 
 Normally, the `WriterConfig.Topic` is used to initialize a single-topic writer.
diff --git a/writer.go b/writer.go
index cdbe07129..89ac87192 100644
--- a/writer.go
+++ b/writer.go
@@ -185,6 +185,9 @@ type Writer struct {
 	// If nil, DefaultTransport is used.
 	Transport RoundTripper
 
+	// AllowAutoTopicCreation notifies writer to create topic is missing.
+	AllowAutoTopicCreation bool
+
 	// Manages the current set of partition-topic writers.
 	group   sync.WaitGroup
 	mutex   sync.Mutex
@@ -733,7 +736,7 @@ func (w *Writer) partitions(ctx context.Context, topic string) (int, error) {
 	// caching recent results (the kafka.Transport types does).
 	r, err := client.transport().RoundTrip(ctx, client.Addr, &metadataAPI.Request{
 		TopicNames:             []string{topic},
-		AllowAutoTopicCreation: true,
+		AllowAutoTopicCreation: w.AllowAutoTopicCreation,
 	})
 	if err != nil {
 		return 0, err
@@ -941,7 +944,7 @@ func newBatchQueue(initialSize int) batchQueue {
 	bq := batchQueue{
 		queue: make([]*writeBatch, 0, initialSize),
 		mutex: &sync.Mutex{},
-		cond: &sync.Cond{},
+		cond:  &sync.Cond{},
 	}
 
 	bq.cond.L = bq.mutex
diff --git a/writer_test.go b/writer_test.go
index 8737809f8..da95423fa 100644
--- a/writer_test.go
+++ b/writer_test.go
@@ -160,6 +160,10 @@ func TestWriter(t *testing.T) {
 			scenario: "writing a message to a non-existant topic creates the topic",
 			function: testWriterAutoCreateTopic,
 		},
+		{
+			scenario: "terminates on an attempt to write a message to a nonexistent topic",
+			function: testWriterTerminateMissingTopic,
+		},
 	}
 
 	for _, test := range tests {
@@ -712,6 +716,7 @@ func testWriterAutoCreateTopic(t *testing.T) {
 		Topic:    topic,
 		Balancer: &RoundRobin{},
 	})
+	w.AllowAutoTopicCreation = true
 	defer w.Close()
 
 	msg := Message{Key: []byte("key"), Value: []byte("Hello World")}
@@ -737,6 +742,30 @@ func testWriterAutoCreateTopic(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func testWriterTerminateMissingTopic(t *testing.T) {
+	topic := makeTopic()
+
+	transport := &Transport{}
+	defer transport.CloseIdleConnections()
+
+	writer := &Writer{
+		Addr:                   TCP("localhost:9092"),
+		Topic:                  topic,
+		Balancer:               &RoundRobin{},
+		RequiredAcks:           RequireNone,
+		AllowAutoTopicCreation: false,
+		Transport:              transport,
+	}
+	defer writer.Close()
+
+	msg := Message{Value: []byte("FooBar")}
+
+	if err := writer.WriteMessages(context.Background(), msg); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("Kafka error [3] UNKNOWN_TOPIC_OR_PARTITION is expected")
+		return
+	}
+}
+
 type staticBalancer struct {
 	partition int
 }