INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS SHOWCASE

7. CANDLESTICK PRESS

This week’s Independent Publishers Showcase, I am delighted to welcome Candlestick Press to the weekly showcase.

Candlestick Press are a small independent publisher based in Nottingham and were founded back in 2008. The team consists of four dedicated people in Di Slaney (Publisher), Kathy Towers (Assistant Editor) and two admin assistants. Their aim is simple to spread the joy of poetry to adults and children alike who love poetry and or may be just beginning their journey in to enjoying poetry. These small pamphlets are just ideal for bedtime reading or like I have been doing and that is enjoying them on journeys.

They have published so many of these beautiful pamphlets on a wide range of topics from Christmas to Cricket, from birds to trees and bees and even Clouds also walking and how could we not have one about breakfast. These wonderful poetry pamphlets make the ideal gift to send to friends and loved ones.

With Christmas now just around the corner, the beautiful Christmas poetry pamphlets are a joy to give as a card that means so much more. I have sent in past years Christmas poetry pamphlets to friends and they have been so well received.

Keep an eye on their Twitter feed @poetrycandle and please visit their website:  Candlestick Press Here you can make purchases in time for Christmas.

A selection of the fiction titles currently released and soon to be released through Candlestick Press:

Christmas Presents: Ten Poems to Give and Receive by Various Authors

Published: September 2020

Summary:

It’s better to give than to receive, as the saying goes. But then, of course, there is sharing which contains a bit of both. This mini-anthology of specially-commissioned poems by leading poets captures the rich rewards of that exchange – whether the memory of time spent with a loved one, the singing of carols or the magic of getting ready for Christmas morning with a young child:

There’s humour in an imagined baby shower for the new-born Christ-child, complete with a carpentry set and a bottle of pink fizz from someone who thought it was going to be a girl. Elsewhere we encounter an ailing family cat who recovers just in time to run rings around the Christmas tree.

Poems by Andre Bagoo, Suzannah V Evans, Mark Fiddes, John Greening, Helen Ivory, John McCullough, Jessica Mookherjee, Pey Oh, Kelley Swain and Ben Wilkinson.

By Bus to Christmas by Tony Curtis

Published: September 2020

Summary:

A child’s delight in the excitement of Christmas is the abiding spirit of these new poems by Irish poet Tony Curtis. The mini-anthology sparkles with dreams, memories and surprises creating a magical world that families everywhere will love to share.

In one poem a boy scans the night sky for Santa Claus and sees instead his “lookout” in the form of a robin redbreast. We also meet two young brothers hunting for holly and stumbling on a magic spell that makes berries appear. The title poem is a modern nursery rhyme that readers of every age will enjoy reading out loud – a journey to Christmas on a bus with snowballs for wheels and stars for windows:

Specially written for the young and young-at-heart to read together, the poems are guaranteed to add an extra sprinkle of magic dust to every Christmas.

Poems by Tony Curtis.

Ten Poems for Winter by Various Authors

Release Date: November 2020

Summary:

Winter seems to divide opinion more than any other season; we love it or we definitely don’t! The poems in this mini-anthology are guaranteed to delight readers of every persuasion; we encounter muddy walks, ice-skating, cosy fires, chilblains and even a snow pudding.

There’s also a Skype meeting between a child and a grandparent – a poignant reminder that distance from a loved one can mean living in different seasons.

These are poems to curl up with: they relish the season’s rigours, finding warmth and humanity in the midst of darkness and cold.

This title completes our beautiful seasonal quartet, making a sumptuous collection of four spanning the whole year. Each pamphlet – or indeed the complete set – makes an ideal gift for occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries and more…

Poems by John Clare, Christine Coates, Jane Duran, Robert Hayden, Rhiannon Hooson, Christopher James, Ted Kooser, Ruby Robinson, Rob Walton and Holly Yuille.

The Wood in Winter by John Lewis-Stempel

Release Date: October 2016

Summary:

One for those of us who love tales of the natural world, and who enjoy seasonal woodland walks when things lie deep and crisp and even. John Lewis-Stempel’s The Wood in Winter is a beautiful piece of nature writing about the life of a wood in bleak midwinter, tying in old festivals and traditions which are so weighted with meaning at this time of year. He writes about why being in a wood in winter strips us to our essential soul, and how close encounters with the animals who thrive in this hard season remind us of our own deep connection to the earth.

“A wood on a winter’s eve, no matter where you are, when the snow is falling through the trees, is existence stripped back to the elements. It is the Ice Age returned in miniature.”

John Lewis-Stempel is an award-winning writer known for his books on nature and history. He lives in Herefordshire where his family have been farming for over 700 years.

Poems by Nancy Campbell and Jackie Kay.

The Christmas Wren by Gillian Clarke

Release Date: September 2014

Summary:

The Christmas Wren by Gillian Clarke, written in response to Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Gillian Clarke’s The Christmas Wren is an exquisite contemporary miniature, written for adults and children alike. A magical tale of the Christmases of a Welsh childhood, it is populated by aunts and uncles, snow and starlight, boxes and baubles.

Commissioned by the Dylan Thomas Centre, the story is for adults and children, and is a magical tale of the Christmases of a Welsh childhood populated by aunts and uncles, snow and starlight, boxes and baubles.
Gillian Clarke is a leading poet, and was appointed National Poet for Wales in 2008.

“The Christmas Wren is a masterpiece and is destined to become a classic.” Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate

Colour illustrations throughout the pamphlet. A welsh version of The Christmas Wren is available.

For further information on the publications from Candlestick Press please visit their website: Candlestick Press

You can also find them on Twitter: @poetrycandle Instagram: @candlestickpress and Facebook: @poetrycandle

If you have enjoyed this week’s showcase, please look out for my next Independent Publishers Showcase next week. If you are an indie publisher and would like to add your name to the showcase, you can contact me via Twitter: @TheLastWord1962