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 almost 800 historical and contemporary poets. In our pages you’ll find old favourites alongside twenty-first century voices – everyone from WH Auden to Benjamin Zephaniah. 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.

  • CK Williams

    CK Williams (1936 – 2015) was an American poet and one of the most widely-respected of his generation. His poems are distinctive for many reasons, including for their very long lines which have an almost prose-like quality. He published many collections, starting with The Lies (1969) and including The Singing which won the National Book Award in 2003. Williams taught at Princeton University until just before his death.

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  • Indigo Williams

    Indigo Williams is a British performance poet who has appeared at Glastonbury and on BBC Radio 4’s Bespoken Word. Based in south London, she is also an active spoken word educator, working with children and young people. She runs a full-time secondary school poetry programme in partnership with Goldsmiths University.

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  • Morag Williams

    Morag Williams is a painter and illustrator based in Nottingham. After studying fine art in Moscow, she moved to Nottingham Trent for further studies. Her paintings explore our relationship with an ever-growing footprint on the natural world. Her work includes a mural commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Sea Turtle monument in Guyana. She has also illustrated all Guyana’s known turtles for the World Wildlife Fund.

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  • Noel Williams

    Noel Williams (1952 – 2021) was a short story writer and poet whose first collection Out of Breath was published by Cinnamon Press in 2014. A pamphlet Point me at the stars followed from Indigo Dreams in 2017. His work has been published widely in numerous magazines. Noel was also Professor Emeritus at Sheffield Hallam University where he was Professor of Communication for several years.

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  • Tony Williams

    Tony Williams is a British poet and novelist. His latest poetry collection Hawthorn City (Salt, 2019) explores medieval material while reflecting his interest in landscape and the contemporary pastoral. A flash fiction collection All the Bananas I’ve Never Eaten (2012) won Best Short Story Collection in the 2013 Saboteur Awards.

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  • Claire Williamson

    Claire Williamson has published four collections of poetry, most recently Visiting the Minotaur (Seren, 2018). She has worked extensively with Welsh National Opera, and on other musical collaborations. She has also contributed essays about creative writing and health to a number of academic journals.

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