Description

Strange Light blazes through the darkness of memory like a lighthouse beam, as Derrick Brown - winner of the Texas Book of the Year prize - navigates the stormy waters of his past with unflinching precision and unexpected grace. From the gentle rock of his floating home on the billie ocean to the electric tension of a high school drama class turned battleground, Brown's fourth collection illuminates the extraordinary within the ordinary, transforming personal history into universal truth.
Dive deep with him into surreal conversations with Jacques Cousteau beneath the waves, waltz through the bittersweet choreography of heartbreak at prom, and witness how his renowned romantic verses bloom like phosphorescence in dark waters. At the heart of this collection stands the titular epic poem "Strange Light" - a masterwork that has leapt from page to stage, where it's been performed with the sweeping grandeur of orchestra and dance, proving poetry can transcend the boundaries between art forms.
This is Brown at his most vulnerable and visceral, crafting what critics have hailed as his most intimately revealing work to date. Each piece functions as a lens, focusing the strange light of experience through the prism of poetry until it breaks into spectrums of humor, heartache, and human connection. Following the success of his acclaimed "Scandalabra" (named one of the best books of 2009 by About.com), Brown continues to prove himself as one of modern American poetry's most innovative voices.