The Queensland government has announced the state’s literary awards will move from their current home at the State Library of Queensland to “an alternative provider” – along with the black&write! fellowships for emerging First Nations writers. The move has been framed in the language of safety and hate speech – and follows recent controversy over an award to a writer outspoken about Israel–Palestine.
A recent review into the State Library of Queensland’s awards programs was prompted by the withdrawal of a A$15,000 fellowship (hours before it was to be awarded) to Martu writer K.A. Ren Wyld, for a fiction manuscript on the Stolen Generations. The government’s concerns included a (since deleted) tweet praising former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a “martyr”.
