At least four judges for the Queensland literary awards have resigned over the past 24 hours, protesting against the State Library of Queensland’s decision towithdraw a prestigious $15,000 fellowshipfrom First Nations writer Karen Wyld over comment she made last year about the Gaza conflict.
The 2022 Stella award winning poet Evelyn Araluen, Wiradjuri academic and writer Dr Jeanine Leane, writer and reviewer Nigel Featherstone and Gamilaroi poet Luke Patterson all confirmed to Guardian Australia on Friday they have resigned from the awards’ judging panels. It is believed several other judges have also resigned, but wish to remain anonymous.
Wyld, who now writes under the name K A Ren Wyld, first learned her black&write! fellowship for her manuscript on the Stolen Generations had been withdrawn from a News Corp journalist on Tuesday morning, just hours before she was due to accept the award in Brisbane. Wyld said at a meeting called shortly after the journalist made contact, the library chief executive, Vicki McDonald, referred to a tweet Wyld had posted aboutthe death of the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwarin October, which referred to him as a martyr. Wyld deleted the tweet shortly after posting it.
On Friday, the State Library ofQueenslandconfirmed it had received a written direction from the state arts minister, John-Paul Langbroek, on Monday stating: “It is my firm view and direction under Section 23 of the Libraries Act 1988 and I am sure the view of most Queenslanders, that Ms Wyld should not receive the award in a Queensland Government or State Library of Queensland venue.”
A spokesperson for Langbroek told the Guardian the minister supported the library’s decision to postpone the awards, and stood by the comments he made in parliament where he said that taxpayer-funded awards should not be granted “to individuals who justify terrorism”.
Earlier this week, a statement by a spokesperson for McDonaldsaid the library’s decision to “postpone the black&write! ceremony”had been made after Langbroek’s comments in parliament, in which he said he had “taken the decision that this award should not be presented” at the state library.
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In Araluen’s letter of resignation to the library, the Dropbear author told McDonald she was “disgusted” by the library’s decision to rescind Wyld’s fellowship and the Queensland government’s “flagrant ministerial overreach”, and was withdrawing as a judge in the Queensland literary awards’ Judith Wright Calanthe award.
“I will not participate in a system that values thought-policing and the silencing of anti-genocidal sentiments over the integrity of artists,” she wrote.
“By conceding to this flagrant weaponisation of the mere perception of a bad-faith assumption of anti-Semitism, wielded against a First Nations author who has been so central to the Blak literary community, the State Library have made themselves liable for the consequences of this decision.
“The reputational harm of this choice will not be ignored by the literary and First Nations community.”
Featherstone, a judge in the awards’ fiction category, said he was unwilling to participate in a process where a panel’s recommendations could be overruled by the arts minister, “in effect, imposing further political silencing”.
He told the Guardian there were two “eminently competitive” books nominated in the category he was judging that dealt directly with the conflict in Gaza.
“Should the panel decide that those titles and their authors be shortlisted, or if one is recommended as the winner, will the minister be overturning those decisions too?” he asked.
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Fellow fiction prize judge Leane said after careful thought she decided she had no other option than to resign.
“I cannot be complicit in this discourse that denies genocide and that tries to shut down any artist, not just First Nations, any artist or writer who wants to speak out against what is happening in Palestine,” she said.
“Ren’s manuscript was not about Palestine, it was actually about the cultural genocide here … they’re shutting down two discussions here … they’re shutting down two truths.”
The Australian Society of Authors said it intended to write to the Queensland premier and the arts minister to “call for a strong stance on freedom of expression and independent arts funding processes”.
“This represents yet another alarming instance of the undermining of freedom of expression and arms-length arts funding,” the ASA said in a statement.
“It sets a dangerous precedent for creators – irrespective of their political views – that opportunities awarded on the basis of literary merit can be retracted if the creator is subject to complaints about their political ideas and expressions. It is vital that arts funding opportunities are independent from government interference.”
The library declined to comment on the judges’ resignations.