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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RS Thomas
RS Thomas (1913 – 2000) was a passionate advocate of Welsh nationalism and a major European poet. He was ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church of Wales in 1936 and had written three collections of poetry before his breakthrough to a wider audience in 1955 with the publication of Song at the Year’s Turning. Reflecting wild and remote areas of countryside in Wales, his poetry is admired for its spiritual, spare and lyrical qualities.
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Frances Thompson
Frances Thompson is a poet and short story writer from Dundee who is also a volunteer Sensory Storyteller. She loves to write descriptive poetry, children’s stories, thriller/horror stories and also stories that are imaginative, fun and quirky. She is inspired by her partner, her friends, her cats, Simba and Coco, the places she visits and the creative groups she attends which include drama and creative writing.
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Marvin Thompson
Marvin Thompson was born in London to Jamaican parents and teaches English in South Wales. His full collection Road Trip was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2020 and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. His work has also been published in The Poetry Review and Poetry Wales. He has an MA in Creative Writing.
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James Thomson
James Thomson (1834 – 1882) was a Scottish journalist, poet and translator who wrote under the pen-name Bysshe Vanolis (chosen because of his admiration for the work of Shelley and the German poet Novalis). He grew up in an orphanage in London and is most often remembered for The City of Dreadful Night (written between 1870 and 1873) which is an allegory depicting the struggles of the poor.
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Katie Tooke
Katie Tooke is a graphic designer who has created a number of striking book covers for Picador, including Helen Oyemi’s White is for Witching.
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Jean Toomer
Jean Toomer (1894 – 1967) was an important figure in African-American literature who wrote both poetry and novels. His most famous work is Cane, published in 1923, which is a novel comprising poems and short stories. He also wrote a long lyrical poem, Blue Meridian, which expresses his hopes and dreams for racial harmony. At the end of his life he became a Quaker and fell into a literary silence.
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