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.

  • Susan Wicks

    Susan Wicks read French at university and has published eight collections of poetry, the first of which is Singing Underwater (Faber, 1992) and the most recent Dear Crane (Bloodaxe, 2021). She has also published novels, short stories and a collection of translations of the French poet Valerie Rouzeau, the latter shortlisted for an international Griffin Prize. She lives in Kent.

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  • Anna Wigley

    Anna Wigley was born in Cardiff. Her award-winning poetry has appeared in a number of poetry magazines, and she won the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2000. She is the author of three collections of poetry, the latest being Waking in Winter (2009), published by Gomer Press. She also writes short stories.

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  • Ben Wilkinson

    Ben Wilkinson published his debut collection of poems, Way More Than Luck, with Seren in 2018. His poetry has won prizes including a Northern Writers’ Award and the Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition. A well-known critic, he reviews poetry for The Guardian and teaches at the University of Bolton. A second book of poems is due to appear in 2022.

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  • Robert Williams Parry

    Robert Williams Parry (1884 – 1956) was a Welsh poet who was greatly influenced by Romantic poets such as Keats. Two volumes of his poetry were published: Yr Haf a cherddi Eraill (1924) and Cerddi’r gaeaf  (1952). His breakthrough came when he won the Chair at the National Eisteddfod in 1910 with his poem ‘Yr Haf’ (‘The Summer’). This poem and ‘The Fox’ are probably his best-known.

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  • CK Williams

    CK Williams (1936 – 2015) was an American poet and one of the most widely-respected of his generation. His poems are distinctive for many reasons, including for their very long lines which have an almost prose-like quality. He published many collections, starting with The Lies (1969) and including The Singing which won the National Book Award in 2003. Williams taught at Princeton University until just before his death.

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  • Indigo Williams

    Indigo Williams is a British performance poet who has appeared at Glastonbury and on BBC Radio 4’s Bespoken Word. Based in south London, she is also an active spoken word educator, working with children and young people. She runs a full-time secondary school poetry programme in partnership with Goldsmiths University.

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