A poet often quoted in books by
Tim Powers and
James P. Blaylock. He is, in fact, a fictional creation of Powers and Blaylock. According to an
interview Ashbless was created in response to the "
free-verse, unpunctuated, unrhymed
hippie drivel" published in their school paper.
Ashbless first appeard in general publication, and as a character, in Blaylock's The Digging Leviathan and Powers's The Anubis Gates. His first collected book of poetry, On Pirates is due out in 2001.