Poppy Z. Brite

William Joseph Martin (published as Poppy Z. Brite,) born on May 25, 1967 in New Orleans, Louisiana,) 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. 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 that feature reoccurring characters from previous novels and short stories. Much of his work is set in gay culture or features openly gay characters.

Literary history
Early in Brite's career, he was best known for writing gothic and horror novels and short stories. His 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 his 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). He has also written a biography about singer Courtney Love (1996) that was officially "unauthorized," but Brite tends to acknowledge that the work was done at Love's suggestion and with her cooperation.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s Brite has moved away from horror fiction and gothic themes while still writing about gay characters. His 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 he severed his relationship 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. He has described Antediluvian Tales, a short story collection to be published by Subterranean Press in November 2007, as "if not my last book ever, then my last one for some time." He is still writing short nonfiction pieces, including guest editorials for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and a food article for Chile Pepper Magazine.

One interesting and popular aspect of Brite's work is his use of recurring characters in works that are not necessarily "series" or "sequels": the friends/bandmates Steve and Ghost and the residents who interact with them in the fictional town of Missing Mile, North Carolina (Lost Souls, "Angels," "How to Get Ahead in New York," "America," "The Rest of the Wrong Thing"); his fluidly gendered alter ego Dr. Brite, the coroner of New Orleans ("Monday's Special," "O Death, Where Is Thy Spatula?", "Marisol," "Crown of Thorns," "Wound Man and Horned Melon Go to Hell"); and most recently longtime companions/chefs Rickey and G-man (The Value of X, Liquor, Prime, Soul Kitchen, D*U*C*K, numerous short stories). About his fondness for revisiting characters, Brite has said, "If I really get obsessed with a character or set of characters, it's usually not enough for me to write about them once; I like to revisit them over the course of time, at different periods in their lives, learning new things about them, getting to know them better and better over the course of several stories." Of his various recurring characters, Brite has stated that he is finished writing about Steve and Ghost and suspects he may be done with Dr. Brite as well. He plans to continue writing about Rickey, G-man, and the Stubbs family.

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 Exquisite Corpse is currently under option, by producer Simon Rumley.

A critical essay on Brite's fiction appears in The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) by S. T. Joshi.

Personal life
The artist formerly known as Poppy Z. Brite is a transgender man named William J. Martin. An openly gay trans man, he lives in New Orleans with his husband.

He lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Athens, Georgia prior to returning to New Orleans in 1993. He loves UNC basketball and is a sometime season ticket holder for the NBA, but he saves his greatest affection for his hometown football team, the New Orleans Saints.

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 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, and in October 2005 became one of the first 70,000 New Orleanians to begin repopulating the city.

In the following months, 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."

Novels and novellas

 * Lost Souls (1992)
 * Drawing Blood (1993)
 * Exquisite Corpse (1996)
 * The Crow: The Lazarus Heart (1998)
 * Plastic Jesus (novella - 2000)
 * The Value of X (2002)
 * Liquor (2004)
 * Triads (2004) (with Christa Faust)
 * Prime (2005)
 * Soul Kitchen (2006)
 * D*U*C*K (novella - 2007)

Short story collections

 * Wormwood (also published in limited edition and in the UK as Swamp Foetus - 1993)
 * Are You Loathsome Tonight? (also published in the UK as Self-Made Man - 1998)
 * Wrong Things (with Caitlin R. Kiernan - 2001)
 * The Devil You Know (2003)
 * Antediluvian Tales (2007)

Anthologies (as editor)

 * Love in Vein
 * Twice Bitten (Love in Vein II)

Short stories
n.b. these were originally published as chapbooks
 * "R.I.P." (1998)
 * "The Seed of Lost Souls" (1999)
 * "Stay Awake" (2000)
 * "Lantern Marsh" (2000) (first published in October Dreams)
 * "Would You?" (2000)
 * "Pansu" (2001)
 * "Con Party at Hotel California" (2002)
 * "The Feast of St. Rosalie" (2003)
 * "Used Stories" (2004)
 * "Crown of Thorns" (2005)
 * "Liquor for Christmas" (2007)
 * The H.O.G. Syndrome'' (Brite's first "novel," about 9000 words, written at age 12; 2007)

Nonfiction

 * Courtney Love: The Real Story (biography, 1997)
 * Guilty But Insane (essays, 2001)

Uncollected short fiction

 * The Freaks (juvenilia) (The Spook #12, 2002; also appears on Brite's website along with other early/unpublished fiction)
 * Fuck It, We're Going To Jamaica! (webzine Necromantic; also appears on Brite's website)
 * The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone (1894) (co-written with David Ferguson; Shadows Over Baker Street, 2003; Ballantine Books)
 * Wandering the Borderlands (Masques V, 2006; Gauntlet Press)

Interviews

 * Interview on Bookslut.com
 * Interview on zulkey.com
 * Interview on Brew City Magazine
 * Interview on wotmania.com
 * Video interview at AuthorViews.com about her book "Liquor"
 * Village Voice interview on Carnival 2005