Damià Huguet (Campos, Mallorca, 1946-1996) was a poet, publisher and film commentator.

He was very much involved with the cultural ferment that has characterised Campos since 1966 with the organisation of such activities as the Campos Conference Cycles, "Nova Cançó" (New Song) recitals and literary festivals. In 1969 he was awarded the Blanquerna de Manacor Prize for his collections of poems Home de primera mà (First-hand Man, 1973) and, in 1973, the Les Illes d'Or Prize of Editorial Moll, for Cinc minuts amb tu (Five Minutes with You). In 1976, he published two more collections of poems Carn de vas (Sepulchre Meat) and Esquena de ganivet (Blunt Side of the Knife). This year, too, he founded the poetry collections «Guaret», «Quaderns campaners» and «La garangola» with the aim of bringing out the work of poets that Mallorca’s more consolidated publishing houses tended to overlook. With few resources and their artisanal style, these collections endured until 1984. With Els calls del manobre (The Working Man's Calluses, 1984), the last publication of the «Guaret» collection, Damià Huguet brought his publishing career to a close, along with a creative period that was notable for the collections of his poems Ofici de sords (Trade of the Deaf – published in 1976 and reissued in 1994), Traus badats (Gaping Holes, 1978), Com un peix dins el rostoll (Like a Fish in the Stubble, 1978) and L'encant dels pentenills (The Charm of Pubes, 1981). The collections Guarets a l'alba (Dawn on Fallow Land, 1987) and L'ull dels clapers (The Eye of Stony Ground, 1988), open a new cycle that continued until Vols des d'Orly (Flights from Orly, 1995). He died in Campos on 18 July 1996. His work Les flors de la claror (Flowers of Light) was published posthumously.

Ruralism, sensuality and the world of cinema are ever-present themes in this extensive and singular work of one of the most representative poets of Catalan literature in Mallorca in the latter half of the twentieth century.

He was a member of the Association of Catalan Language Writers (AELC).


Web page: Toni Terrades for AELC.
Documentation: Toni Terrades.
Photographs: Biel Huguet.