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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Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822) was born in Sussex and married Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Frankenstein, in 1814. His friends included Keats and Lord Byron. Prolific in his lifetime, his poems include the long visionary pieces Prometheus Unbound (1820) and Queen Mab (1830). Expelled from school for his atheistic views, he led an unconventional life, participating in political reform activities. He drowned in a sailing accident in 1822, aged 29.
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Nan Shepherd
Nan Shepherd (1893 – 1981) was a Scottish writer whose most famous book is The Living Mountain, written in the 1940s but not published until 1977. It describes in poetic prose her hillwalking experiences in the Cairngorms, always undertaken alone. She published only one collection of poetry In the Cairngorms (1934) which explores her deep kinship with the natural world.
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Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye has a Palestinian refugee father and an American mother. She grew up in Jerusalem and Texas and her experience of cultural difference is something that informs much of her work – whether children’s fiction, essays or poetry. She cites local life and random characters as one of her primary inspirations. Her most recent collection is The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions, 2019).
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Richard Shimell
Richard Shimell is an artist and printmaker who lives on the edge of Dartmoor. He started printmaking when he joined the Dartington Printmaking Workshop and went on to become a member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen. Trees – which he depicts in infinitely fine detail using the linocut technique – are an enduring source of inspiration.
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Penelope Shuttle
Penelope Shuttle was born in 1947 in Middlesex, and has lived in Falmouth, Cornwall since 1970, a place which often inspires her work. She has published a number of poetry collections, as well as five novels. Her collection, Redgrove’s Wife, was shortlisted for the 2007 TS Eliot Prize.
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John Siddique
John Siddique is a poet, essayist and spiritual teacher. His most recent poetry collection is Full Blood (Salt, 2011). An earlier collection Don’t Wear It On Your Head (Salt, 2010) is a perennial favourite among younger readers. He is the co-author of the story/memoir Four Fathers. His poems, essays and articles have featured on BBC Radios 3 and 4 and he is Honorary Creative Writing Fellow at the University of Leicester.
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