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 800 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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Martin Figura
Martin Figura was born in Liverpool and now lives in Norwich. He is a poet, teacher and photographer. His book Whistle (Arrowhead Press, 2010) is a long autobiographical poem which was turned into a show and subsequently shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. In 2016 he published Dr Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine with Cinnamon Press and the pamphlet Shed with Gatehouse Press.
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Anne Finch
The poetry of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661 – 1720), which earned a degree of attention during her lifetime, became better known after her death. While Finch also authored fables and plays, today she is best known for her poetry. After her death, critics recognised the diversity of her poetic output as well as its personal and intimate style. She was appointed a maid of honour to Mary of Modena in the court of Charles 11 and went on to marry Colonel Heneage Finch, who subsequently became the fifth Earl of Winchilsea.
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Roy Fisher
Roy Fisher is a major figure in British poetry, considered by many to be one of the most important post-war English poets. One of the first poets to incorporate American and European poetics into the British tradition, Fisher’s early work, including City (1961), was immediately admired in the United States while in the UK the publication in 1981 of Poems 1955 – 1980 established his reputation as a leading experimental and innovative poet. This collection was followed by, amongst others, A Furnace (1986), Poems 1955-1987 (1988), The Dow Low Drop (1996), The Long And The Short Of It: Poems 1955 – 2005 (2005) and Standard Midland (2010). News for the Ear: A Homage to Roy Fisher edited by Peter Robinson and Robert Sheppard appeared in 2000, and a book of critical essays, The Thing about Roy Fisher, edited by John Kerrigan and Peter Robinson, was published the same year., In 2005 Roy Fisher was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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Gabriel Fitzmaurice
Gabriel Fitzmaurice is an Irish poet from County Kerry who has written more than twenty books, including poetry for adults and children in both English and Irish. His work for children includes But Dad! (Dublin, Poolbeg, 1995), Puppy and the Sausage (Poolbeg, 1998) and A Giant Never Dies (Poolbeg, 2002). He is also a translator and songwriter.
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John Foggin
John Foggin (1943 – 2023) was a British poet who lived in West Yorkshire. He worked as a teacher and lecturer and won numerous poetry awards including The Plough Prize in 2013 and 2014. His last collection was Pressed for Time (Calder Valley Poetry, 2022). During the pandemic he ran a project which led to the publication of When All This Is Over (Calder Valley Poetry, 2020) – an anthology in which 26 poets explore imaginary occupations.
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Carolyn Forché
Carolyn Forché is an American poet, translator, activist and teacher, perhaps best known for coining the term ‘poetry of witness’ which testifies to her belief that poetry can combine the personal with the political. Her first collection Gathering the Tribes (Yale University Press, 1975) was published when she was only twenty-four. Since then she has produced several further collections and gained an international following.
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