About Us
Distributed by Asterism Books in Seattle.
We publish and promote great books of poetry every year. We are a small press in LA with a snappy look, dedicated to quality literature that is proud to be printed in the USA. Since our inception in 2004, we have launched 170 titles and 55 ebooks.
We are grassroots, DIY, indie artists who believe that great poetry changes people for the better. Authors should make a living, and a way to do that is to create broad fan bases built from mandated touring, fair royalties, and great-looking books. Our authors are captivating at live readings and incredible on the page.
We publish some of the top-selling, touring poets in the United States.
Check out our sister company, Write Bloody UK.
Write Bloody UK is a brand new independent poetry publisher passionate about bringing the voices of UK poets to the masses. Founded by poet & publisher Fern Angel Beattie in 2020.
Write Bloody UK is committed to creating, distributing, and marketing our authors' works, binding their words in beautiful, velvety-to-the-touch books, and touring loudly with them through UK cities.
Check out our Sister company, Write Bloody North.
A new voice in Canadian publishing. Write Bloody North publishes groundbreaking voices and Northern poetry legends to create innovative, fresh poetry books. Founded by Brad Morden in Toronto.
Our History
Write Bloody Publishing was started in 2004 by award-winning traveling poet, comedian, and former paratrooper Derrick C. Brown.
After spending the mid-1990s and early 2000s touring throughout Europe and the U.S., Brown realized the untapped potential in the contemporary poetry market for authors who hit the road and read in bars, theaters, and clubs. Authors had to learn the art of building fan bases by putting on entertaining readings.
Brown saw young, smart, page-savvy poets, prose writers, and poetry performers sell out shows, with only self-published, junky-looking chapbooks available. It seemed ridiculous and fateful that publishing houses — both mainstream and independent — hadn't signed some of the best-known and hardest-working touring authors on the scene today.
Brown envisioned a publishing house that celebrated touring authors, a press that would give gorgeous, modern, ISBN-kissed books to hard-working authors who rocked stages, crashed on couches, and slept in vans. The publishing house would also have to take only the best authors and market them to the world with a solid distribution plan.
This has been the guiding philosophy of Write Bloody: Let the poets and authors who tour be the marketing; let this publishing house be the source for access to poets outside of academia.
Write Bloody is now partnered with authors of over 170 titles to make this vision come true. Brown's background in independent music and indie arts heavily influenced the look and feel of Write Bloody. Utilizing rock album designers and photographers, Write Bloody's look is as fresh, hard-charging, and unapologetic as its writers are.
Write Bloody authors are diverse and out there — touring and performing in small record shops and prominent colleges, strange theaters, and swampy bars — doing readings across Europe, Australia, and the United States. Going to a reading will one day be as ordinary as going to the movies or seeing a band. Write Bloody is currently paving the way. Our books are found in bookstores worldwide, from Guam to Berlin.
Read More:
The Return of the Troubadours, write-up in Forbes magazine
Interview: Derrick Brown, sweet interview with our founder Derrick Brown about the power of poetry, at Paper Darts online
You Belong Everywhere—A Chat With Poet Derrick C. Brown & Filmmaker Stephen Latty, at U Want 2 GoGo
The Blood-Jet Writing Hour, Derrick Brown talking about Write Bloody and performance poetry on Blog Talk Radio
Write Bloody Lends a Hand to Local Poets, write-up in the Austin Statesman, local newspaper
Poet Derrick Brown Blends Rock N' Poetry, write-up in Boise Weekly