Australian War Memorial literary prize deferred amid controversy
The Australian War Memorial has deferred awarding the Les Carlyon Literary Prize in a move that ‘effectively overruled a decision by its appointed judges to award a military history literary prize to a book about the alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith’, reported the Guardian last Friday.
Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes (Chris Masters, A&U) was set to be named the winner of the biennial prize, according to sources and documents (including internal emails) sighted by the Guardian.
The title ‘tells the extraordinary story of Ben Roberts-Smith, from the battlegrounds of Afghanistan to the frontlines of the Federal Court trial that established on the balance of probabilities he committed war crimes’, according to the publisher’s synopsis of the work.
Reporting on the controversy in the Conversation, Carolyn Holbrook noted that the war memorial has ‘strongly promoted’ Roberts-Smith’s military achievements, and that the former special forces soldier had ‘featured prominently in its Afghanistan exhibition’.
In a statement about the deferral of the award, the Australian War Memorial claimed that 2024 calls for entries ‘excluded the requirement that entrants be emerging or unpublished authors’; however, the Guardian reported that this was a reversion to an earlier iteration of the prize rules, after the entry criteria were expanded in 2022.
The publication added that internal judging panel head Karl James wrote to memorial director Matt Anderson that cancelling the 2024 award ‘may avoid possible short-term uncomfortableness due to the nature of the nominated work’ but a decision to cancel the award for the year ‘invites greater reputational damage … than awarding it to a controversial winner’.
In its statement, the Australian War Memorial said that its council is ‘undertaking a full governance review to ensure integrity and transparency in future competitions’.
Established in 2020, the $10,000 Les Carlyon Literary Prize was named in honour of the late historian, author and journalist as a biennial award for titles relating to Australian military history, Australian social military history and war history. The Australian War Memorial said it plans to run the 2026 competition following its review.
Category: Local news
