Here at The Honey Pop, we believe that there’s nothing more important than the voice of fans. That’s why we’re so excited about Bebe Ashley’s brand new poetry book Gold Light Shining! It’s full of the highs and the lows of what life is like, not just as a Harry stan, but a fan of any artist.
Inspired by sources as diverse as Styles’s track listings, Scandi webseries Skam, and One Direction newsletters, Ashley spins us across continents on a tour of the surreal highs and absurd lows of celebrity culture. These are poems of youth and yearning, yet they’re suffused with the hard-won wisdom that the communities we build can be as meaningful as the families we’re born into.
The book itself includes several different sections and each one is just as beautifully written as the last. ‘Fandom’, is one of the chapters most inspired by Styles’ own music as each poem takes a title from the songs on his self titled album. The next chapter ‘Fangirl’ takes a more wistful turn, but it’s one of our absolute favs in the book. After that we dive deep into the stories behind ‘Fan Fic’ before we get some post with ‘Fan Mail’.
We were also lucky enough to talk to the woman of the moment herself about what she hopes people reading her work take away with them!
One of my ambitions with this book is to re-empower the voice of the fangirl which is too often disregarded as hysteria without people realising that fangirls are also doctors, lawyers, teachers etc.
Bebe Ashley
Still not convinced that this is a collection of poems that you shouldn’t miss out on? Then allow us to share some of our favourite lines from each chapter right here.
Fandom – Kiwi / Kiwi / Kiwi
The guitarist who used to work in the pizza shop
looks to the bassist, the keys, the drummer
to know if this is normal. It is not normal:
people are having the time of their lives.
Fangirl – Breakdown
There was something serendipitous
about being heartbroken during the release
of a heartbreak album, with the postman
already tired of square sleeve parcels
and the neighbours already sick of hearing
heartbreaker’s twelve songs on repeat.
Fan Fic – A Thousand Lives
the boy who lived a thousand lives in a single day
said something careless and everything stopped
Fan Mail – I Promise to Not Be So Absent
Adolescence is a wild beast.
Copies of Gold Light Shining are available here.
Are you dying to read Ashley’s gorgeous poetry? Looking forward to getting your hands on a copy? Let us know in the comments below or by tweeting us at @TheHoneyPOP! You can also catch up with us on Instagram and Facebook!
You can also check out some of our other fan written coverage here.
To Learn More About Bebe Ashley
TWITTER | WEBSITE
Featured Image: Bebe Ashley via Twitter
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