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.

  • Sally Goldsmith

    Sally Goldsmith is a Sheffield-based songwriter and broadcaster, as well as being a poet. Her pamphlet Singer was chosen by Michael Longley as a first stage winner in the 2008 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition. Sally has also won prizes for her radio work and song-writing, including two Sony Radio Awards. Her first poetry collection Are We There Yet? was published by Smith/Doorstop in 2013.

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  • Lorna Goodison

    Lorna Goodison was born in Kingston, Jamaica and has published numerous poetry collections. The first, Tamarind Season, appeared in 1980 and her most recent is Supplying Salt and Light (McClelland and Stuart, 2013). She was a painter before she was a writer and her poems are rich in the imagery of her Jamaican homeland. While her poetry engages with history and social issues, there is often also a place for humour.

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  • Rebecca Goss

    Rebecca Goss was born in Suffolk where she now lives. She has published two collections of poetry The Anatomy of Structures (Flambard Press, 2010) and Her Birth (Carcanet, 2013). Her poems are often informed by a plainspoken physicality and her 2013 collection encompasses the tragic death of her daughter at sixteen months and the sense of renewal that a second child can usher in.

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  • Sam Goundry Butler

    Sam Goundry Butler is a poet and teacher based in South East London. He is currently studying on the MA Creative Writing and Education programme at Goldsmiths, University of London.

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  • Harry Graham

    Harry Graham, or Jocelyn Henry Clive ‘Harry’ Graham (1874 -1936) was an English writer and journalist. After serving in the Boer and First World Wars, he became a leading lyricist for operettas and musical comedies. However, he is best known as a writer of dark humorous verse.

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  • Virginia Graham

    Virginia Graham (1910 – 1993) was a writer of poetry, journalism and essays, best known for her 1946 poetry collection Consider the Years, about her life during the Second World War. She was the daughter of Harry Graham and  a close friend of Joyce Grenfell, with whom she collaborated.

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