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.

  • Brian Jones

    Brian Jones (1938 – 2009) was a critically acclaimed, award-winning poet, who wrote the majority of his work between 1966 and 1990. He was the author of eight collections, including Freeborn John (1990) and The Island Normal (1978). He also wrote children’s poems, his collection The Spitfire on the Northern Line, being published in 1975. His New and Selected Poems was published in 2013.

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  • MK Joseph

    MK Joseph (1914 – 1981) was one of the most important poets and novelists in New Zealand during his lifetime. His poems draw on both high and popular culture, alongside meditations on the seen and unseen world and pieces informed by his experiences during the Second World War. His novels range from historical romance to science fiction.

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  • LB Jørgensen

    LB Jørgensen is a poet who has lived in England several times, most recently for five years, but she has now returned to her native Denmark. She only writes poetry in English and has had poems published in several magazines, The North, Magma, Under the Radar, Pennine Platform and Strix among them. Her debut pamphlet A Woman Travelling about a year of travels primarily in Asia is published by Paekakariki Press in 2024.

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  • Mohja Kahf

    Mohja Kahf is a poet, novelist and scholar. She was born in Damascus, Syria and moved to the US with her family in 1971. Her poetry collections include Emails from Scheherazad (2003) and Hagar Poems (University of Arkansas Press 2016). Her work reflects both Syrian and American influences and she writes about the differences between the cultures of her home and adopted countries.

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  • Chitra Kalyani

    Chitra Kalyani is a poet and writer based in New Delhi, India. One of her poems is forthcoming in the anthology Daydreamers by Urban Ivy Press. She is also working towards publishing her first collection of poetry.

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  • Kapka Kassabova

    Kapka Kassabova is a poet and writer of both fiction and non-fiction. She was born in Bulgaria and lived in New Zealand before settling in Edinburgh, UK. Her first poetry collection was All Roads Lead to the Sea (Auckland University Press, 1997). Two further collections are jointly published by Auckland University Press and Bloodaxe: Someone else’s life (2003) and Geography for the Lost (2007).

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