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 almost 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.

  • Robert Williams Parry

    Robert Williams Parry (1884 – 1956) was a Welsh poet who was greatly influenced by Romantic poets such as Keats. Two volumes of his poetry were published: Yr Haf a cherddi Eraill (1924) and Cerddi’r gaeaf  (1952). His breakthrough came when he won the Chair at the National Eisteddfod in 1910 with his poem ‘Yr Haf’ (‘The Summer’). This poem and ‘The Fox’ are probably his best-known.

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  • 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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