Derrick C. Brown is an award-winning poet, storyteller, and president of Write Bloody Publishing. His innovative fusion of poetry and comedy earned Paste Magazine's Comedy Album of the Year (2023). The New York Times praises his work as "a rekindling of faith in the weird, hilarious, shocking, beautiful power of words." A formerparatrooper with the 82nd Airborne, Brown has authored ten poetry collections and four children's books, winning the Texas Book of the Year award for Poetry. He serves as the 2025/26 Poet Laureate of Los Feliz, California, and often tours via motorcycle, bringing his explosive performances to venues worldwide.

"A Little Grief Break yokes together thirty years of dynamic work from a singular and vital poet. The poems in this collection are brimming over with voice and humor and hurt and all the rich particulars of an adventurous and attentive life. I've been mesmerized getting to witness Derrick cast these spells aloud in bars, theaters, and basements for the past fifteen years and am so grateful for this collection in which he's assembled a home for that magic from a language we all share."

- Sam Sax, author of PIG (Scribner, 2023), and YR DEAD (McSweeney's, 2024)

"Most poets seem keen to check the ingredients on boxes or to run out of burning buildings, not Derrick Brown. Buy this book! A Little Grief Break is all charm and language and daring under flame-retardant humor, which is me saying, his tropical heart never vacations, and he sings more courageously than any newly arrived poet in hipster boots. The difference? His poems are honed, quick-witted, and settle scores only with himself. Look at how he wildly grins behind his helmet of wit, going in, flares flickering off its cracked glass."

-Major Jackson, author of Razzle Dazzle