UQP staff urge university to reconsider “Bila” cancellation
Several University of Queensland Press (UQP) staff members have signed a letter asking the University of Queensland (UQ) to reconsider its decision to cancel publication of Bila, A River Cycle by Wiradjuri poet Jazz Money and illustrator Matt Chun; while further authors have followed Evelyn Araluen in cutting ties with the publisher in response to the book’s cancellation.
UQP staff members Amelie Soper, Aviva Tuffield, Cathy Vallance, Erin Sandiford, Jean Smith, Katy Bedford, Kirsty Wilson, Lauren Mitchell and Yasmin Smith – as well as 3 others who were not named – wrote in their statement of solidarity that they were “greatly concerned about the precedent the University of Queensland has set by cancelling this book contract”.
“We feel this decision is in direct opposition to our commitment to our authors and the community to uplift culturally significant, diverse stories,” they wrote. “We stand in solidarity with Jazz Money and those who are, like us, feeling distressed and betrayed.”
In a social media post, Money wrote of being “stunned to see fellow UQP authors cancel contracts, sacrificing their own livelihoods in solidarity with Bila,” adding, “I do not think the destruction of these books is the most important thing happening today. But I do see how the cancelling of this book is interconnected with the silencing, violence, media corruption and rising facism we see around the world.”
UQP authors including Randa Abdel-Fattah, Sara Haddad and Natalia Figueroa Barroso have each stated that they will not publish future works with UQP.
Abdel-Fattah, whose novel Discipline was published by UQP in September last year, said she was “shocked by UQP’s shameful and cowardly decision to capitulate to, and thereby legitimise, yet another Murdoch-driven smear campaign by cancelling Bila”; Haddad, whose novella The Sunbird was published in 2024, said the decision had demonstrated UQP was “no longer an honourable institution […] and therefore it is not one I can entrust with my future work”; and Figueroa Barroso, whose debut, Hailstones Fell Without Rain, was published in August last year, wrote: “I tremble at your immoral choice, and for that I have made the decision never to sign with you again.”
As previously reported, UQ cancelled the June publication of Bila, a River Cycle, citing statements made by the book’s illustrator that it said “do not align with the university’s policies and values or with its adopted definition of anti-Semitism”. Stella Prize winner Araluen announced she would terminate any future projects with UQP in response to the cancellation.
In their letter, UQP staff members said the book was “a First Nations story about waterways and environmental pollution, and would have been an important addition to children’s literature”.
“It was thoughtful, considered and created with care,” they wrote. “Hours upon hours of labour were poured into it by its creators, and by our small team. We are devastated to see that labour dismissed so completely.”
Category: Local news
