First Nations author vows to 'keep speaking up' for Palestine after Queensland grant revoked
The State Library of Queensland pulled the $15K award over pro-Palestine advocacy. Now, K.A. Ren Wyld tells Deepcut why they’re not backing down.
For Martu author K.A. Ren Wyld, the last week has been "a little bit hectic".
On Tuesday May 20, Wyld revealed on X that the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) had abruptly rescinded their place in the prestigious black&write! writing fellowship program for First Nations authors, which included $15,000 in prize money.
That afternoon, the Queensland arts minister, John-Paul Langbroek, told parliament he had "serious concern over the recent decision by the Library Board of Queensland to award a black&write! Writing Fellowship" to Wyld.
Langbroek described Wyld, who he did not name, as "an author who has publicly expressed sympathy for Hamas – a group listed as a terrorist organisation under Australian law". Using parliamentary privilege – which protects politicians from defamation claims if remarks are made on the floor of parliament – the LNP minister urged the Library Board to stop "taxpayer funded awards being granted to individuals who justify terrorism", adding that the black&write! fellowship "must ... never [be] undermined or used as a platform for views that are fundamentally at odds with Australian values".
Langbroek was referring to a tribute Wyld tweeted to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar following the latter’s death in Gaza in October 2024.
"The government completely overrode the peer-reviewed process that's supposed to make sure programs like this are culturally appropriate and arms-length from government, and led by experts," Wyld told Deepcut.
Since that tweet, Wyld has been the subject of several articles in The Australian, including one in February in which authors Yoni Bashan and Nick Evans described Wyld as a "lunatic".
On May 20, Wyld alleged that Australian reporter Mackenzie Scott had sent them questions about the fellowship that morning – before Wyld themselves learned the fellowship had been rescinded. Scott's questions also revealed Langbroek had written to the State Library "asking organisers to reconsider your appropriateness for the award".
"I didn't wait for The Australian to do another hit job on me," Wyld told Deepcut. "Whenever media send me emails saying 'You've got until X o'clock to respond to our highly ridiculous questions before we print', my tactic is just to screenshot that email and share it. You don't respond to them. You mock them."
'This has hurt countless First Nations people'
Wyld had flown from Adelaide to Brisbane the previous day for the awards ceremony. On the Tuesday morning, Wyld arrived at the library to discuss the award's logistics and stage a photoshoot ahead of the awards ceremony that evening.
"Instead, I got escorted upstairs to meet the [Library Board of Queensland] CEO [Vicki McDonald] and Executive Director [Rebecca Lamoin]. I was probably in and out of there in less than ten minutes," Wyld says.
"I was then taken downstairs by an admin person to meet with the black&write! team and the other (still unnamed) fellowship recipient. It was a really distressing moment, so we gave each other support."
Since being established in 2011, black&write! has helped First Nations authors including Claire G. Coleman, Alison Whittaker, Nardi Simpson and Sue McPherson finish unpublished manuscripts and sign publishing contracts. Wyld and their fellow recipient were each to receive $15,000 in prize money, editorial development on their unpublished manuscripts with the black&write! team, and a publication opportunity with University of Queensland Press (UQP).
"I feel for so many people. The black&write! team, the new editorial interns, the other recipient, the judges – all First Nations people, all experts in their fields. Some of the people involved had family that had travelled there, they'd booked accommodation. The shortlisted writers were ready to have their moment with family, friends and community. I was later told there were elders and other First Nations people who’d created and initiated the black&write! program who’d turned up to the reception, not knowing it was cancelled, and some were distraught.
"This is not about me. I'm a nobody. But this has hurt countless First Nations people. I'm really concerned about how much this has hurt community members, and all of us who work in creative industries – editors, writers, arts workers, publishers. The damage is so far-reaching."
Wyld also noted that the decision came the week before May 26, which marks National Sorry Day and the 28th anniversary of the tabling of the Bringing Them Home report.
"In the 28 years since that report came out, only six percent of its recommendations have been actioned," Wyld says. "The manuscript that I won a black&write! fellowship for was about the Stolen Generations, which was an aspect of genocide as defined under the UN Genocide Convention."
"So they didn't just silence me, or people speaking out against the oppression of Palestinians, or many First Nations people in creative and cultural industries. They've shut down my contribution to raising issues of justice for Stolen Generations members through my novel. That's what the novel was – I wrote it to honour them and to help put calls for justice and support for them back on the table."
SLQ directed media enquiries to a statement released on May 22.
'It's the Barbara Streisand effect'
Despite being stripped of a significant financial and professional opportunity, Wyld has no plans to stop speaking publicly about the genocide in Gaza.
"I've been speaking publicly about the apartheid state in Israel since about 2017 because there was enough evidence coming out of human rights organisations to support that," Wyld says. "I've seen the generational impact of genocide, and remnants of destroyed infrastructure, in places like Cambodia. Even here, you can walk across the continent and see signs of massacres and genocide. The earth itself holds the memory of mass violence.
“I've just lost a significant amount of money that would have covered my living expenses for the rest of the year. That's a massive blow. But I walked away with my values and ethics intact and they didn't silence me, and I know this hasn’t scared others into silence. We're actually seeing the opposite – we're seeing more people who were silent start to speak up now. It's a bit of the Barbara Streisand effect.”
Since news of Wyld's rescinded fellowship broke, four judges of the Library's Queensland Literary Award (QLA) have publicly resigned in protest.
"I cannot in good conscience participate in a process that claims to celebrate literary merit while allowing judges’ decisions to be undermined and overturned by government ministers more offended by the mention of Palestine than by the genocide unfolding before our eyes," author and QLA judge Sara El Sayed wrote on May 22.
"I won’t participate in a system that prioritises censorship, humiliation, thought-policing and the erasure of anti-genocidal advocacy over the integrity of artists and arts workers," author, Overland editor and QLA judge Evelyn Araluen wrote on May 23. "I won’t participate in these concessions to Zionist lobbyists as millions of Palestinians starve."
"I have resigned as a judge for the 2025 Queensland Literary Awards (fiction panel), due to yet another example of Australian artists being denied work, opportunities and recognition because of their political beliefs," author Nigel Featherstone wrote on May 24. "It is wrong for major and influential cultural organisations, such as the State Library of Victoria, the State Library of Queensland, and Creative Australia – all supposed bastions of pluralism – to be part of constructing an environment in which artists are punished and silenced, both directly and indirectly."
Deepcut has been informed that at least four other QLA judges have resigned without speaking publicly.
'I have to keep speaking up'
While the media focus has been on the fellowship and subsequent fallout, Wyld is at pains to direct people's attention back to the genocide in Gaza.
"A very typical strategy of the genocides of at least the last 150 years is that they go after the scholars, artists and writers," Wyld says. "We're seeing this really clearly in Israel, where they're assassinating, torturing, and abducting academics, writers and journalists.
"The day before this all happened, the news was coming out that humanitarian organisations were predicting 14,000 children in Gaza were going to starve to death.
"So I have to keep speaking up, and not feel afraid."