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.

  • Stephen Watts

    Stephen Watts is a poet and translator based in East London with family roots in the Italian Alps. He twice came second in the National Poetry Competition and has published numerous full collections, most recently Ancient Sunlight (Enitharmon, 2014). Republic of Dogs / Republic of Birds is a recent prose work, first written on a typewriter in the 1980s and lost for over 30 years before it was finally published by Test Centre Publications.

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  • Christine Webb

    Christine Webb was born in the Midlands, but has lived in the south of England for much of her life. She has taught Drama part-time at university level, worked for an examination board and taught English to international graduate students. Her first collection, After Babel, was published in 2004.

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  • Julia Webb

    Julia Webb is a poet, editor and creative writing tutor. Her first full poetry collection Bird Sisters was published by Nine Arches Press in 2016. Her poems have been published widely in magazines and in 2011 she won the Poetry Society Stanza competition with her prose poem ‘Lent.’ She runs the Norwich Poetry Book Group.

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  • Mary Webb

    Mary Webb (1881 – 1927) was a poet and novelist. Her most famous novel Precious Bane was published in 1924. She wrote many of her poems, often informed by a natural mysticism, while living near Shrewsbury.  She gained further prominence after her premature death when Prime Minster Stanley Baldwin praised her work. The Essential Mary Webb was published by Jonathan Cape in 1946.

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  • Daniel Webster Davis

    Daniel Webster Davis (1862 – 1913) was an American poet, the son of slaves, who went on to become a teacher, minister and poet. He published two collections of poetry: Idle Moments (1895) and ‘Weh Down Souf (1897). His work often uses dialect and wit to explore themes of racial inequality via religion, education and family.

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  • John Wedgwood Clarke

    John Wedgwood Clarke was born in Cornwall and trained as an actor before going on to study literature. His debut pamphlet Sea Swim was published by Valley Press in 2012, followed by a full-length collection, Ghost Pot. His second collection Landfill (Valley Press, 2017) was largely inspired by a residency at Scarborough’s municipal dump.

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