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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Nick Makoha
Nick Makoha published his debut collection Kingdom of Gravity in 201. It was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and was a Guardian’s Book of the Year. He won the 2015 Brunel International African Poetry Prize and the 2016 Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Prize for his pamphlet Resurrection Man. His poems have appeared in numerous journals including the Cambridge Review, the New York Times, Poetry Review, TriQuarterly Review, Boston Review, Callaloo and Wasafiri. He is a Trustee for the Arvon Foundation and the Ministry of Stories, a member of the Malika’s Poetry Kitchen collective and founder of The Obsidian Foundation.
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Osip Mandelstam
Osip Mandelstam (1891 – 1938) is one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. He studied at the Sorbonne, the University of Heidelberg and the University of St. Petersburg but gave up his studies to write Stone (1913), a collection heavily influenced by Russian Symbolism. His second, Tristia (1922), firmly established his reputation. He spent his latter years serving sentences for counter-revolutionary activities in various work camps and died in captivity.
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Freya Manfred
Freya Manfred is an American writer and teacher who has published nine collections of poetry, most recently Loon in Late November Water (Red Dragonfly Press, 2018). She has also written a memoir Raising Twins: A True-Life Adventure. Her themes range from nature to human relationships, the mystery of dreams, love, longing, illness and death.
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Aoife Mannix
Aoife Mannix is an Irish poet and writer who was born in Sweden. She grew up in Dublin, Ottawa and New York before moving to the UK. Her poetry collections include The Elephant in the Corner (2005), Growing Up An Alien (2007), Turn the Clocks Upside Down (2008), and Cocktails from the Ceiling (2013). She is also the author of a novel Heritage of Secrets (reissued 2023) and several libretti. Her pamphlet Alice under the Knife won the James Tate Poetry Prize 2021. She has a PhD in creative writing from Goldsmiths, University of London.
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Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield (1888 – 1923) was a prominent writer of short fiction born and brought up in New Zealand, who also wrote poetry. She moved to Great Britain in 1908, where she became close friends with a circle of writers which included D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, and published several collections of short stories as well as some poems. After contracting tuberculosis, she died aged 34 years.
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Arjunan Manuelpillai
Arjunan Manuellpillai is a poet and creative facilitator based in London. His debut pamphlet Mutton Rolls was published by Out-Spoken Press in 2020 and a full collection Improvised Explosive Device is due in October 2002. He has worked extensively with community arts projects both in the UK and abroad.
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