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 700 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.
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Maureen Richardson
Maureen Richardson (1943 – 2020) was born in Tyneside and later moved to Nottingham to take up a post as a community worker. It was here that she followed her passion for writing and became a successful Creative Writing Tutor while publishing her own short stories and poems. She was an active environmental campaigner and appeared regularly on radio and TV. In the last years of her life she was an enthusiastic member of Our Dementia Choir which was the subject of a BBC documentary.
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Anne Ridler
Anne Ridler (1912 – 2001) was a poet and librettist, described as “one of the best poets of her generation”. Her first book of poems was published in 1939, while working at Faber and Faber, for a time as assistant to T. S. Eliot. She published ten collections of poetry as well as original and translated opera libretti, including Monteverdi’s Orfeo. She was also the author of verse plays which were performed in Oxford and London. Her Collected Poems (Carcanet Press) were published in 1997 and she was awarded an OBE for services to literature shortly before her death.
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Frances Ridley Havergal
Frances Ridley Havergal (1836 – 1879) was an English religious poet and a prolific hymn writer. Her best-known hymns include ‘Take My Life and Let it Be’ and ‘Thy Life for Me’. She also wrote hymn melodies, religious tracts and works for children. A Poetical Works was published in 1884.
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Elvire Roberts
Elvire Roberts is a poet and interpreter based in the East Midlands. She has a background in British Sign Language, Mandarin and French. Her poems have appeared in journals including Strix, Reliquiae and Finished Creatures and she was also a Writing East Midlands mentee in 2018-19.
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Phoebe Robertshaw
Phoebe Robertshaw is an aspiring poet from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. This publication by Candlestick Press is her first and the poem was written when she was a student at Holmfirth High School. She is currently in her first year at Greenhead College where she is studying English Literature. She is enthusiastic about exploring the power of words through poetry and hopes to have more of her work published in the future.
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Robin Robertson
Robin Robertson has published four poetry collections, the latest being The Wrecking Light (2010), shortlisted for the 2010 Forward Poetry Prize, Costa Poetry Award and T. S. Eliot Prize. He has also written a translation of Euripides’ Medea. He was brought up in Scotland and lives and works in London.
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