Damien Becker is the winner of the 2024 Flying Island Poetry Manuscript Competition for his manuscript Thin Reed Throat
Congratulations to the following shortlisted poets:
- Ashleigh Synnott, The Technology I Assume
- C. J. Anderson-Wu, Clear My Name
- Damien Becker, Thin Reed Throat
- Kay Cairns, Looking for the River
- Lorraine Gibson, Some Things Change Some Stay the Same
- Nicola Watson, Treechanging
- Peter Kenneally, Make it Exemplary
- Peter Mitchell, Under Skies with no Obligations
- Troy Walsh, An Iconoclastic Explosion
- Yvonne Patterson, Lineage: Fault Lines
The list of longlisted poets is set out here
About the Competition
With the activity of poetry-making central to its efforts, Flying Islands particularly aims to bring experienced and new poets together on and off-line, through mentoring, art events of various kinds, workshops, blogs, websites, readings, launches and, and most importantly, through the ongoing publication of the Flying Island Pocket Poets Series. The Flying Islands Manuscript Prize for Emerging Poets is part of this process.
The Prize
(Oscar statue not included). The prize for the competition is $1000 cash, publication in the Flying Island Pocket Poets Series (with thirty free copies to the poet) and the possibility of negotiating a short writer’s residency at Arbaro Writers and Artists Residency. Other finalists may also be offered publication in the Flying Island Pocket Poets Series.
Timeline
- Dates for submission of entries: Closed 31 July 2024
- Longlist announced: 31 August 2024
- Shortlist announced: 18 September 2024
- Winner announced: 1 November 2024
- Winning book or books to be launched: To be advised
- Read the Eligibility and Terms and Conditions and be satisfied you can comply
. - Have your manuscript ready as a PDF file. Ensure the manuscript has no identifying details or marks. This includes the name of the PDF file. Please compress your PDF file. There are many free online compression tools such as www.ilovepdf.com/compress_pdf . The maximum size for a PDF file is 7 MB.
- Click the Entry Button below. You will be taken to an entry form to complete. As part of the form, you will be required to pay your entry fee and upload your manuscript. The PDF file will be uploaded to a separate location from your details. The name of your manuscript will be used to link back to your details for the results to be announced.
Results of the 2022 Poetry Manuscript Competition
It was an extraordinarily difficult task to choose the winners, as so many of the more than fifty entries were of a very high standard. We would like to thank all of the poets who submitted their work – it makes us feel confident about the future of Australian poetry!
Thanks to our Judges: Magdalena Ball, Kit Kelen, Brian Purcell
Winners:
GOLD MEDAL
Sophia Wilson’s En Cas D’Urgence (Sea Skins)
D.G. Lloyd’s Alive in Dubbo
SILVER MEDAL
Alan Fyfe’s G-D, Sleep and Chaos
BRONZE MEDAL
Sophie Finlay’s the terrarium
Carl Walsh’s Supermarket of Words
Congratulations to the winning entries, and all who took part in the competition!
Eligibility and Terms and Conditions
- Entrants can be poets of any age who have not yet published a full-length poetry collection (of more than 40 pages);
- entrants must submit a complete manuscript (m/s) as a PDF document of no less than 60 A4 pages, and of no more than 90 pages;
- entrants are only permitted to submit one m/s or book proposal in this competition;
- manuscripts may be in English or in any other language AND English (bilingual manuscripts are encouraged);
- collaborative entries are permitted, and in such a case, all authors involved must provide all necessary details; collaborations between poet/translators will be entertained. All authors must be eligible entrants.
- poets who have already published books with Flying Islands are not eligible for this prize (likewise ineligible are poets who have previously discussed or negotiated a m/s with Flying Islands, or who currently have one in the pipeline);
- The manuscript PDF file must be uploaded using the entry form. Please compress your PDF file before uploading. There are many free online compression tools such as www.ilovepdf.com/compress_pdf The maximum size of a PDF file is 7 MB.
- The entry must be submitted no later than midnight 31 July 2024.
- The entry form includes a payment gateway to pay the entry fee by credit card only. The entry fee is $10 concession / $15 waged. Successful payment of the entry fee is a condition of entry;
- as this is a blind competition, the entrant’s name, address or other identifying details must not appear anywhere on the PDF of the m/s, (if identifying details do occur on the m/s, it will be excluded from the competition). This includes in the name of the PDF file.
- the entry submitted must be the original work of the author and its submission is read as a statement of this as fact and as an agreement to all of these Terms and Conditions;
- the judges reserve the right not to award a prize if entries are of insufficient merit;
- the decisions of the judges are final and no correspondence will be entered into;
- winners must be prepared to participate in at least one launch of their book, as determined by Flying Islands.