Sadly this also applies to anybody who has the guts to stand up to the Genocide / Murder being committed by Israel – Peter
When Michelle de Kretser accepted the 2025 Stella prize on 23 May, the celebrated author shared a warning.
“All the time I was writing these words, a voice in my head whispered, ‘You will be punished. You will be smeared with labels as potent and ugly as they’re false,’” De Kretser told the Sydney writers’ festival crowd. “‘Career own goal,’ warned the voice.”
Earlier in her prerecorded speech, De Kretser had denounced what she called a “program of suppression” against creatives, scholars and journalists for “expressing anti-genocide views” in relation to Israel and Gaza.
The speech received a standing ovation. It had been taped weeks earlier but arrived in the immediate fallout of exactly the kind of episode De Kretser was talking about.
Three days before the Stella announcement, the Martu author KA Ren Wyld revealed she had been stripped of a $15,000 black&write! fellowship from the State Library of Queensland, just hours before it was due to be announced.
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