William Ashbless is a fictional poet, invented by fantasy writers James Blaylock and Tim Powers.
Ashbless was invented by Powers and Blaylock when they were students at California State University, Fullerton in the early 1970s, originally as a reaction to the low quality of the poetry being published in the school magazine.
Neither author was aware that the other's novel contained a William Ashbless until the coincidence was noticed by the editor responsible for both books, who suggested that the two consult one another so that their references would be consistent.
By winds that would not even stir a hair...In 1985, Powers and Blaylock produced Offering the Bicentennial Edition of the Complete Twelve Hours of the Night: 1785–1985, a prospectus for a non-existent collection of Ashbless poetry, published by Cheap Street Press.
In 2017, Big Hit Entertainment, the label behind K-Pop group BTS, created a blog post on Naver that mentions Ashbless as a character.