Candida Baker is a writer, editor, photographer, journalist and natural horsemanship practitioner. She is currently editor of an Australian horse magazine, HorseVibes, President of an equine charity, Equus Alliance, and she runs an FB page, The Horse Listener. Candida is the author of two novels, Women and Horses and The Hidden and an award-winning book of short stories, The Powerful Owl. She has also written a series of non-fiction books entitled Yacker – Australian Writers Talk About Their Work and her most recent series of anthologies – The Infinite Magic of Horses, The Wonderful World of Dogs and The Amazing Life of Cats were published by Allen & Unwin. She has also written several children’s books, including Belinda the Ninja Ballerina, and her stories have appeared in numerous anthologies. Her next book will be published with Murdoch books in 2021.
As a journalist Candida has held numerous positions on Australia’s major publications. She was a feature writer with the Melbourne Age for seven years; deputy editor of the Good Weekend magazine; arts editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and editor of The Weekend Australian Magazine, a position she held for five years. She regularly reviews books and writes features for a variety of magazines and newspapers.
After a move to the north coast of New South Wales seven years ago, Candida concentrated on her photography for some years, appearing in numerous groups exhibitions and winning several prizes. Her photography features on her website, and her images are available in a variety of materials and sizes, all custom-made to order. Candida has supplied people worldwide with her prints. Her photographs have appeared in The Hidden, itself about a photographer, and in her animal series of anthologies.
Candida has been a horse lover all her life. Her interest in them and love for them, has led her to natural horsemanship or horse ‘whispering’ which she has now taken to horse ‘listening’. Over the past twenty years she has rescued numerous horses, all of whom have gone on to happy homes. She is also an Equine Facilitated Learning pracitioner, and uses essential oil therapy combined with EFL therapy for both horses and humans.
Candida lives in the hills behind Byron Bay with her family and an assorted collection of four-legged friends, including Willow, a French Bulldog who makes frequent appearances on Candy’s FB pages.