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 850 historical and contemporary poets. In our pages you’ll find old favourites alongside twenty-first century voices – everyone from WH Auden to Belinda Zhawi. 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.-
Mona Arshi
Mona Arshi is a poet and poetry tutor and worked as a human rights lawyer before she started writing poetry. In 2011 she completed an MA in Poetry at the University of East Anglia, after which her debut collection Small Hands (Pavilion, 2015) won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Dear Big Gods was published in 2019 by University of Liverpool Press.
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John Ashbery
John Ashbery (1927 – 2017) was one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century, winning almost every one of the country’s literary awards. His first collection was Some Trees (1957) which won a competition judged by WH Auden (later said that he hadn’t understood any of the poems). Ashbery’s later work was influenced by abstract expressionism and his experience as an art critic. He believed that poetry should reflect the fluidity and uncertainty of life.
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Herbert Asquith
Herbert Asquith (1881 – 1947) was a British poet and novelist (who was also the second son of the British Prime Minister HH Asquith). He was greatly affected by the First World War and wrote a number of poems and a best-selling novel (Young Orland) reflecting his experiences as a soldier. He was one of the ‘Georgian’ poets popular at the beginning of the 20th century.
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Neil Astley
Neil Astley is editor of Bloodaxe Books, which he founded in 1978. His books include many anthologies, most notably the Bloodaxe Staying Alive trilogy, as well as two novels featuring sheep, The End of My Tether (Scribners), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, and The Sheep Who Changed the World (Flambard), about a cloned black sheep who defeats the forces of international terrorism.
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Jean Atkin
Jean Atkin is an award-winning poet based in Shropshire. Her first collection, Not Lost Since Last Time, is published by Oversteps Books. She has also published five poetry pamphlets and a children’s novel, The Crow House. She has held residencies and worked on projects, especially collaborative projects, in both Scotland and England.
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Polly Atkin
Polly Atkin is a poet and non-fiction writer whose work focuses on nature, place and disability. She grew up in Nottingham then lived in East London for seven years before moving north to study Romantic legacies in the Lake District. Her poetry collections Basic Nest Architecture (Seren: 2017) and Much With Body (Seren: 2021) will be followed by Emergency Dream (Seren: 2026). She works as a freelancer from her home in Grasmere, where she co-owns Sam Read Bookseller.
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