Candlestick Press
Biographies
Here you can find out more about the huge range of poets we feature in our pamphlets and the artists whose work appears on our beautiful covers.
We’ve now published poems by over 850 historical and contemporary poets. In our pages you’ll find old favourites alongside twenty-first century voices – everyone from WH Auden to Belinda Zhawi. Although our emphasis is on British poetry, you’ll also find Irish, American and Australian writers. We hope these pages will encourage you to explore further the work of a poet you’ve enjoyed in one of our pamphlets.-
Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye has a Palestinian refugee father and an American mother. She grew up in Jerusalem and Texas and her experience of cultural difference is something that informs much of her work – whether children’s fiction, essays or poetry. She cites local life and random characters as one of her primary inspirations. Her most recent collection is The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions, 2019).
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Richard Shimell
Richard Shimell is an artist and printmaker who lives on the edge of Dartmoor. He started printmaking when he joined the Dartington Printmaking Workshop and went on to become a member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen. Trees – which he depicts in infinitely fine detail using the linocut technique – are an enduring source of inspiration.
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Penelope Shuttle
Penelope Shuttle was born in 1947 in Middlesex, and has lived in Falmouth, Cornwall since 1970, a place which often inspires her work. She has published a number of poetry collections, as well as five novels. Her collection, Redgrove’s Wife, was shortlisted for the 2007 TS Eliot Prize.
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John Siddique
John Siddique is a poet, essayist and spiritual teacher. His most recent poetry collection is Full Blood (Salt, 2011). An earlier collection Don’t Wear It On Your Head (Salt, 2010) is a perennial favourite among younger readers. He is the co-author of the story/memoir Four Fathers. His poems, essays and articles have featured on BBC Radios 3 and 4 and he is Honorary Creative Writing Fellow at the University of Leicester.
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Charles Simic
Charles Simic (1938 – 2023) was a Serbian-born poet who lived and worked in the United States where he established a reputation as a singular and important voice. His first collection What The Grass Says was published in 1967 and in 1990 he won a Pulitzer prize for his collection The World Doesn’t End. His writing frequently draws on his childhood experiences in war-torn Belgrade and explores the spiritual poverty of modern life.
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Jane Simmons
Jane Simmons has recently completed a PhD in Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in The Blue Nib, Ink Sweat and Tears and Mslexia magazines and in the anthology Lincolnshire Folktales Reimagined (Five Leaves Press, 2025). She won the University of Leicester’s GS Fraser poetry prize (2019, 2020, 2021) and her work has been longlisted for the Mslexia Poetry Prize (2022), The National Poetry Prize (2022) and shortlisted by Candlestick Press (2023). She was also placed third in the Mslexia Poetry Competition (2023) and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize (2024). Her debut pamphlet is to be published by New Walk Editions.
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