Candlestick Press – 'Instead of a card' poetry pamphlets | UK based independent publisher

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.

  • Winifred Holtby

    Winifred Holtby (1898 – 1935) was a poet, journalist and novelist, best known for her novel South Riding which was published posthumously. She produced two collections of poetry, My Garden and The Frozen Earth. She was a lifelong friend of Vera Brittain with whom she shared strong pacifist, socialist and feminist beliefs. When she died she left a small legacy and a collection of her books to the town of Soweto in South Africa where a library was founded in her name.

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  • Miroslav Holub

    Miroslav Holub (1923 – 1998) was the Czech Republic’s most significant poet, and a leading scientist working in immunology. His poetry began to be published in 1958 and often reflects his interest in science and medicine. He also wrote essays on various aspects of science.

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  • Jeremy Hooker

    Jeremy Hooker grew up near Southampton although many of his poems were written in Wales, where he has lived for long periods of his life. As well as publishing numerous collections of poetry – most recently Scattered Light (Enitharmon, 2015) – he is well-known as a critic and has published selections of writings by Edward Thomas and Richard Jefferies and a study of David Jones.

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  • Rhiannon Hooson

    Rhiannon Hooson has won several awards for her work including an Eric Gregory Award. Her first book, The Other City, was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year. She has appeared at literature festivals across the UK, and her work has been featured in the Guardian, Magma and Poetry Wales. She has been a Literature Wales bursary recipient, a Hay Festival Writer at Work, poetry editor of Creative Countryside magazine, and the judge of the PENfro festival poetry competition. She holds a PhD in Poetry from the University of Lancaster, and now lives in the Welsh Marches.

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  • Gerard Manley Hopkins

    Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 – 1889) was an English poet who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1866, later becoming a Jesuit priest and teacher. His poetic output was slim, but innovative, breaking tradition with his use of ‘sprung rhythm’. His poetry was published posthumously and he has since become acknowledged as a leading Victorian poet.

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  • Beag Horn

    Beag Horn lives on the Ayrshire coast but grew up in Worcestershire where her Grandad had an allotment. Beag holds an MLitt from Stirling University and has produced her debut pamphlet Found Property: poems, as well as having poems printed in several anthologies including the Edwin Morgan Centenary Collection (Speculative Books). Her poem ‘Keep Dancing’ was shortlisted for the Janet Coats Memorial Prize in 2024.

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