Damien Becker wins Flying Island Poetry Prize

Murwillumbah poet Damien Becker has won the 2024 Flying Island Poetry Manuscript Competition for his work Thin Reed Throat.

Becker won the first prize of $1,000 cash, publication in the Flying Island Pocket Poets Series and 30 free copies, and a potential writer’s residency at Arbaro Writers and Artists Residency.

One of 10 shortlisted finalists, Becker said he was amazed at the accolade.

“Winning this award was a big surprise and hugely validating for me as a writer still finding my way,” he said.

Flying Islands has poetry-making as central to its efforts. It aims to bring experienced and new poets together on and off-line through mentoring, art events, workshops, blogs, websites, readings, launches, and its Pocket Poet Series publication.

The poet said that his title came from the sense of diminished power of his own voice, literally and symbolically.

“People with cystic fibrosis (CF) tend to have very distinctive timbre to their voice for physiological reasons,” he said.

“In many ways, this book was a reclamation of something I felt reduced my place in the world around me, competing for attention at increasing volumes.

“Living with CF is an inescapable lens through which you experience everything, from your first breath. Death presses on you constantly.

“I wanted to convey the joy and complexity of life within such parameters, particularly as a child and teenager finding a sense of themselves with no ability to think too far into the future.

“I’ve had a wonderful life. I’m 50 next year, and I’ve been fit and healthy since my lung transplant nine years ago. I’ve been extremely lucky.”

Becker believes in the importance of poetry and the liberty it represents for him personally.

“Poetry for me is freedom from the constraints of day-to-day communications, whether it’s our relentlessly bland corporate language, the daily hustle of personal branding, or the polarised debates online.”

The north coast region is well known for its fertile creative ground. Becker believes the area helps creatives to thrive.

“I think the landscapes of our region, and the people that are either drawn to them or emerge from them, show glimpses of what a perfect world could look like, small visions of possibility,” he said.

“It’s no wonder that we produce so many artists and writers.”