SLQ rescinds Wyld ‘black&write!’ fellowship, postpones winner announcement
Author KA Ren Wyld’s place in the black&write! fellowship program has been rescinded by the State Library of Queensland (SLQ), the author said on X (Twitter).
The 2025 black&write! writing fellowships winner announcement was due to take place yesterday, 20 May. SLQ has listed the event as ‘postponed until further notice’.
Yesterday afternoon, Wyld said, in part: ‘Last night, I secretly flew to Brisbane to attend the 2025 black&write! fellowship announcement, which is supposed to be happening right now at SLQ. At this event, I was to be named one of the recipients. […]
‘At 10:30 am today, I arrived at the SLQ for an induction meeting […] Instead, I was quickly ushered to the CEO’s office. […] Clarifying what’s happened is not [state librarian and SLQ CEO] Vicki [McDonald]’s fault, or the black&write! team and partner organisations.’
Wyld added that they received a media enquiry from journalist Mackenzie Scott at the Australian, which included the question: ‘Do you think it is appropriate that the Queensland arts minister has written to the State Library asking organisers to reconsider your appropriateness for the award?’
The Australian subsequently published a news piece claiming that the award was rescinded due to comments Wyld also made on X in 2024 in relation to the death of the then–Hamas leader in October 2024.
According to the Australian, Wyld’s statement on X read: ‘Vale to the martyr Sinwar. Resisting colonisation until his last breath, fighting the genocidal oppressors like a hero, sacrificing his life for love of his people and ancestral land.’
‘I’m a broke nobody who detests genocide, and those attacking me are privileged cowards,’ Wyld said, adding that they will not speak with Murdoch media.
SLQ has posted a brief statement about the fellowships to its website, not naming the author. Attributed to McDonald, the statement reads, in part: ‘The fellowships are awarded solely on the literary merit of submitted manuscripts by a highly respected panel of First Nations publishing professionals.
‘Regrettably, media coverage and commentary today in relation to the personal views of the recommended recipient has overshadowed the intent of the awards. This has significantly impacted the individual artists and people involved.
‘State Library has committed to undertake an independent review of the suite of awards and fellowships we administer. It will have specific focus on how we balance our strong commitment to freedom of expression and our role as a State Government funded cultural institution.’
Posting screenshots of the statement to X, Wyld commented: ‘Spoiler alert: I oppose all genocides, apartheid and other crimes against humanity. And for that, SLQ [has] punished me.’
Two winners were due to each receive $15,000 in prize money, editorial development with the black&write! team, and a publication opportunity with University of Queensland Press (UQP). UQP and SLQ reached an agreement late last year for the publisher to release titles from the black&write! program beginning next year, as the result of a call for expressions of interest for a publishing partner for the program, which was most recently conducted in partnership with Hachette Australia.
Wyld is an author and freelance writer of Martu descent living on the south coast of Adelaide, South Australia. They were the recipient of the ACT Writers Centre and First Nations Australia Writers’ Network inaugural Hardcopy scholarship for an emerging First Nations writer in 2018 for their then–work-in-progress Where the Fruit Falls. They subsequently won the 2020 UWA Publishing Dorothy Hewett Award for the novel, which was released by UWA Publishing in October 2020.
They have also released other short works in multiple genres, as well as two other standalone titles – Heroes, Rebels and Innovators: Inspiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People from History (illus by Jaelyn Biumaiwai, Hachette, 2021), and When Rosa Came Home (2013, currently out of print) – and a co-edited anthology with Dominic Guerrera, The Rocks Remain: Blak Poetry and Story (Wakefield Press, 2024).
Alongside Wyld, five other writers were shortlisted for the 2025 fellowships, including Marilyn ‘Marly’ Hooper, Angelina Hurley, Joyrah Sebasio, Mariah Sweetman and Scott Wilson. The second intended recipient for 2025 has not been named.
The annual black&write! program has been running for 13 years, with two writing fellowships awarded each year through the national unpublished manuscript competition; aspiring First Nations editors are offered pathways through the program’s editorial internships, which run in parallel to the writing fellowships.
Twenty new published books have been produced through the program since it began in 2011. Former winners include Sue McPherson, Jared Thomas, Nardi Simpson, and Claire G Coleman.
Tags: black&write Wyld
Category: Awards Local news
