Book Launch: Harbour Doubts by Bebe Ashley

For further information or details about the event please email ael@qub.ac.uk

School of Arts, English and Languages

Join us for a celebration of Bebe Ashley's second poetry collection published by Banshee Press which explores sign language  and longing.

The Seamus Heaney Centre

Seamus Heaney Centre

Events from the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University Belfast

Bebe Ashley’s prizewinning second collection charts the poet’s efforts to qualify as a British Sign Language interpreter. Intershot with enquiries into the nature of language as it is spoken and signed, and the process of leaving and finding home, Harbour Doubts is a collection that tangles with the burning desire to communicate in the isolation of a late capitalist, post-pandemic world. It’s also a love letter to the delights of linguistics and language, a three-dimensional exploration of words and the body. Bringing together meditations on language as mediated through sound, sign, vision, and film, this exciting sophomore collection cements Bebe Ashley’s reputation as a fearless experimenter. <blockquote>“The most important thing to know is that I have nearly always wanted to become a sign language interpreter, says the speaker halfway through this beautifully experimental, tender and deeply moving collection. The poems lead the reader through memories, storytelling and even a few instruction manuals towards the sheer excitement, joy and heartbreak that are so often part of learning a new language.”</blockquote>— Stav Poleg <blockquote>“These poems bear the clear voice of a quiet visionary taking stock in turbulent times. Ashley’s speakers risk everything to examine what is and isn’t there in the frightening in-between spaces of love, disappointment, and isolation. This is a surprising and moving collection made compelling by the strikingly simple, ordered curiosity of its watchers — both close-up and at a distance. They are committed to interpreting the signs as means of telling us, and themselves, to keep going.”</blockquote>— Dawn Watson https://bansheepress.org/shop/p/harbour-doubts-by-bebe-ashley

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Book Launch: Harbour Doubts by Bebe Ashley

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