YA Author Ashley Woodfolk Stokes The Flames Within Female Friendships In ‘Nothing Burns As Bright As You’

essence.com:

The Beauty That Remains, When You Were Everything, and others, decided to explore those feelings between two female best friends.

In her newest novel-in-verse, Nothing Burns as Bright as You, queer love, friendship, and grief burn each page like a fire that can’t be extinguished.Told in a day but using years of each friend’s history, Nothing Burns as Bright as You follows two best friends after they start a fire—and how their relationship shifts.

What started out as a friendship grew into something more, and their blurry lines only get blurrier as they navigate their changing feelings.Woodfolk explores learning your worth, knowing when to leave love, and choosing a healthy love that also sets your soul on fire—or choosing yourself.

Essence spoke to Woodfolk about complicated female friendships, recklessness, and fear as a hindrance.ESSENCE: What inspired you to write Nothing Burns As Bright As You?Ashley Woodfolk: This book came shortly after the pandemic started.