| Poppy Z. Brite | |
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Photo by J.K. Potter |
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| Born | Melissa Ann Brite May 25, 1967 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist, Writer |
| Period | 1985–Current |
| Notable work(s) | Lost Souls (1992) Drawing Blood (1993) Exquisite Corpse (1996) The Value of X (2002) Liquor (2004) Prime (2005) Soul Kitchen (2006) |
| Spouse(s) | Chris DeBarr |
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www.poppyzbrite.com |
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Poppy Z. Brite (born Melissa Ann Brite on May 25, 1967 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and now using the name Billy Martin in daily life) is an American author. Brite initially achieved notoriety in the gothic horror genre of literature in the early 1990s after publishing a string of successful novels and short story collections. Brite's recent work has moved into the related genre of dark comedy, of which many are set in the New Orleans restaurant world. Brite's novels are typically standalone books but may feature recurring characters from previous novels and short stories. Much of Brite's work features openly bisexual and gay characters. Brite is a transgender man and prefers to be referred to with male pronouns and terms.
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Brite is best known for writing gothic and horror novels and short stories. Brite's trademarks have included using gay men as main characters, graphic sexual descriptions in the works, and an often wry treatment of gruesome events. Some of Brite's better known novels include Lost Souls (1992), Drawing Blood (originally titled Birdland) (1993), and Exquisite Corpse (1996); he has also released short fiction collections: Swamp Foetus (also published as Wormwood, 1993), Are You Loathsome Tonight? (also published as Self-Made Man, 1998), Wrong Things (with Caitlin R. Kiernan, 2001), and The Devil You Know (2003). Brite's "Calcutta: Lord of Nerves" was selected to represent the year 1992 in the story collection The Century's Best Horror Fiction.[1]
Brite has also written a biography of singer Courtney Love (1996) that was officially "unauthorized", but Brite acknowledges that the work was done at Love's suggestion and with her cooperation, including access to Love's personal journal and letters.[2]
In the late 1990s and early 2000s Brite moved away from horror fiction and gothic themes while still writing about gay characters. The critically acclaimed Liquor novels—Liquor (2004), Prime (2005), and Soul Kitchen (2006)—are dark comedies set in the New Orleans restaurant world.The Value of X (2002) depicts the beginning of the careers of the protagonists of the Liquor series — Gary "G-Man" Stubbs and John "Rickey" Rickey; other stories, including several in his most recent collection The Devil You Know and the novella D*U*C*K, chronicle events in the lives of the extended Stubbs family, a Catholic clan whose roots are sunk deep in the traditional culture of New Orleans. Brite hopes to eventually write three more novels in the Liquor series, tentatively titled Dead Shrimp Blues, Hurricane Stew, and Double Shot. However, in late 2006 Brite ceased publishing with Three Rivers Press, the trade paperback division of Random House that published the first three Liquor novels, and is currently taking a hiatus from fiction writing. Brite has described Antediluvian Tales, a short story collection published by Subterranean Press in November 2007, as "if not my last book ever, then my last one for some time." He still writes short nonfiction pieces, including guest editorials for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and a food article for Chile Pepper Magazine.
Brite has often stated that, while he will allow some of his work to be optioned for film under the right circumstances, he has little interest in movies and is not overly eager to see his work filmed. In 1999, his short story "The Sixth Sentinel" (filmed as The Dream Sentinel) comprised one segment of episode 209 of The Hunger, a short-lived horror anthology series on Showtime. Of all his books, only Lost Souls is currently under option, by producer Paul Natale.
A critical essay on Brite's fiction appears in The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) by S. T. Joshi.
Brite has written and talked extensively about his gender dysphoria and gender identity issues.[3] He self-identifies with gay males, and as of August 2010, has begun the process of gender reassignment. In 2003, Brite wrote that, while gender theorists like Kate Bornstein would call him a "nonoperative transsexual", Brite would not insist on a pedantic label, writing "I'm just me".[4] However, as of May 9, 2011, Brite prefers to be referred to by male pronouns.[5]
He lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Athens, Georgia prior to returning to New Orleans in 1993. He is a fan of UNC basketball, but says his greatest support is for his hometown football team, the New Orleans Saints.
Brite is the longtime partner of Chris DeBarr, who is a chef at The Green Goddess. They have a de facto cat rescue that houses between 15 and 20 cats, and sometimes also dogs.
During Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the federal levee system in 2005, Brite at first opted to stay at home, but he eventually relocated 80 miles (130 km) away to his mother's home in Mississippi. He used his blog to update his fans regarding the situation, including the unknown status of his house and many of his pets,[6] and in October 2005 became one of the first 70,000 New Orleanians to begin repopulating the city.
Since 2005, Brite has been an outspoken and sometimes harsh critic of those who are leaving New Orleans for good. He was quoted in The New York Times and elsewhere as saying, in reference to those considering leaving, "If you’re ever lucky enough to belong somewhere, if a place takes you in and you take it into yourself, you don't desert it just because it can kill you. There are things more valuable than life."[7]
On August 30, 2008, as Hurricane Gustav approached the city, Brite and DeBarr elected to remain in New Orleans. They survived the ordeal unharmed and with minimal damage to their home and property.
On January 6, 2009, Brite was arrested at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in New Orleans as part of a peaceable demonstration in which churches in the Uptown area of the city were occupied to protest their closings.[8] In August 2009 New Orleans's Gambit Weekly publication published reader-poll results naming Brite in second place as an ever-popular "Best Local Author."[9]
On June 9, 2010, Brite officially stated that he was retired, in a post entitled 'I'm Basically Retired (For Now)' on his Livejournal. He stated that he had 'completely lost the ability to interact with my body of work,' then went on to state that business issues were in part a cause of this issue. Along with this, he specifically mentioned being unable to disconnect from aspects of his life relating to Hurricane Katrina. He ended his statement by saying that he missed having relationships with his characters and that he did not feel the need to write for publication.
N.B.: These were originally published as chapbooks.
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