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.

  • Paul Bommer

    Paul Bommer is an artist and illustrator with a particular interest in history and character, often informed by an irreverent sense of humour. He graduated from the National College of Art & Design in Dublin and now works from his studio in Norfolk. He was commissioned to create a ceramic Delft tile plaque commemorating the Huguenots of Spitalfields which can be seen on Hanbury Street in London.

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  • Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné

    Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné is a poet and artist from Trinidad & Tobago. Her poetry has been featured in anthologies such as Coming Up Hot: Eight New Poets from the Caribbean (2015) and The Sea Has No Ornament  (Peepal Tree Press, 2020).  Her first full collection is Doe Songs (Peepal Tree Press, 2018) which won the 2019 OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry. She lives in Sangre Grande, Trinidad.

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  • Laura Boswell

    Laura Boswell is a printmaker working with linocut, woodblock and traditional Japanese woodblock printing. She has completed printmaking residencies in Japan, studying woodblock printmaking with master craftsmen. Her latest book is Linocut and Reduction Printing, Design and Techniques (The Crowood Press, 2022).

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  • Niki Bowers

    Niki Bowers studied at Great Yarmouth College of Art, followed by a BA(Hons) degree at Canterbury College of Art. As a graphic designer, she worked for design consultancies across the UK before returning to Norfolk to pursue a freelance career and turning to printmaking. Her limited edition linocut prints reflect the landscape and wildlife of rural Norfolk, with distinctive trees, hedgerows and wide skies. They often feature swirling flocks of wild birds.

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  • Alison Brackenbury

    Alison Brackenbury was born in Lincolnshire in 1953 and has worked as a librarian, a clerical assistant and in the family metal-finishing business. She has published numerous poetry collections, including most recently Skies (Carcanet, 2016). Her work reflects her love of nature and her lifetime relationship with horses.

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  • Anne Bradstreet

    Anne Bradstreet (1612 – 1672)  was born in Northamptonshire but emigrated to America with her husband and parents with the Winthrop Puritan group. She became one of the first poets to write English verse in the American colonies. Her work was published by her brother-in-law in England in 1650 under the title The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America.  Her most admired work, a sequence of religious poems called Contemplations, was not published until the nineteenth century.

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