Poppy Z. Brite
Encyclopedia
Poppy Z. Brite 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.
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); she 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.
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.
In the late 1990s
and early 2000s Brite moved away from horror fiction and gothic themes while still writing about gay characters. Her 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 her 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 she severed her 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. She 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." She is still writing 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 she will allow some of her work to be optioned for film under the right circumstances, she has little interest in movies and is not overly eager to see her work filmed. In 1999, her 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 her 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
.
issues. She self-identifies with gay males, and as of August 2010, has begun the process of gender reassignment
. Brite has written that, while gender theorists like Kate Bornstein
would call him a "nonoperative transsexual", Brite herself would not insist on a pedantic label, writing "I'm just me". She stated on Twitter
that she prefers male pronouns to be used when referring to her, stating "Remember I said I'd let people know when I became uncomfortable with female pronouns? I'm there. I'd prefer the standard male ones, please."
She lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
and Athens, Georgia
prior to returning to New Orleans in 1993. She is a fan of UNC
basketball
, but says her greatest support is for her 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 she eventually relocated 80 miles (128.7 km) away to her mother's home in Mississippi
. She used her blog
to update her fans regarding the situation, including the unknown status of her house and many of her 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. She 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."
On August 30, 2008, as Hurricane Gustav
approached the city, Brite and DeBarr both elected to remain in New Orleans and not evacuate. 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. In August 2009 New Orleans' Gambit Weekly
publication published reader-poll results naming Brite in second place as an ever-popular "Best Local Author."
. Sje stated that she had 'completely lost the ability to interact with her body of work,' then went on to state that business issues were in part a cause of this issue. Along with this, she specifically mentioned being unable to disconnect with aspects of her life relating to Hurricane Katrina
. She ended her statement by saying that she missed having relationships with her characters and that she did not feel the need to write for publication.
s.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author. Brite initially achieved notoriety in the gothic horror genre of literature in the early 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
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
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
characters.
Literary history
Early in Brite's career, she was best known for writing gothic and horrorHorror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
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
Drawing Blood
Drawing Blood is a 1993 novel, the second novel from author Poppy Z. Brite.-Synopsis:The novel concerns Trevor McGee, a comic book artist and sole survivor of a family murder-suicide, and Zachary Bosch, a bisexual hacker, and their arrival at McGee's old family home in Missing Mile, North...
(originally titled Birdland) (1993), and Exquisite Corpse
Exquisite Corpse (novel)
Exquisite Corpse is the third horror novel by Poppy Z. Brite. The protagonist of the story is Andrew Compton, an English convicted homosexual serial killer, cannibal and necrophiliac.-Plot summary:...
(1996); she has also released short fiction collections: Swamp Foetus
Wormwood (book)
Wormwood, originally published as Swamp Foetus, is a collection of short stories by New Orleanian horror fiction author Poppy Z. Brite. It was first published by Borderlands Press, a small press publisher of horror fiction, in 1993...
(also published as Wormwood, 1993), Are You Loathsome Tonight?
Are You Loathsome Tonight?
Are You Loathsome Tonight? is a collection of short stories by New Orleanian author Poppy Z. Brite published in 1998 by Gauntlet Press.- Stories :*Introduction by Peter Straub*In Vermis Veritas*Arise...
(also published as Self-Made Man, 1998), Wrong Things (with Caitlin R. Kiernan
Caitlin R. Kiernan
Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan is the author of many science fiction and dark fantasy works, including seven novels, many comic books, more than one hundred published short stories, novellas, and vignettes, and numerous scientific papers.- Overview :Born in Dublin, Ireland, she moved to the United States...
, 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.
Brite has also written a biography of singer Courtney Love
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
(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.
In the late 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
and early 2000s Brite moved away from horror fiction and gothic themes while still writing about gay characters. Her critically acclaimed Liquor novels—Liquor (2004), Prime (2005), and Soul Kitchen (2006)—are dark comedies set in the New Orleans restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
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 her most recent collection The Devil You Know
The Devil You Know (book)
The Devil You Know is a collection of short stories by New Orleanian author Poppy Z. Brite published in 2003 by Subterranean Press.- Stories :*"Dispatches from Tanganyika: A Foreword"*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 she severed her 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. She has described Antediluvian Tales, a short story collection published by Subterranean Press
Subterranean Press
Subterranean Press is a small press publisher in Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction, primarily horror, suspense and dark mystery, fantasy, and science fiction...
in November 2007, as "if not my last book ever, then my last one for some time." She is still writing 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 she will allow some of her work to be optioned for film under the right circumstances, she has little interest in movies and is not overly eager to see her work filmed. In 1999, her short story "The Sixth Sentinel" (filmed as The Dream Sentinel) comprised one segment of episode 209 of The Hunger
The Hunger (serial)
The Hunger is a British/Canadian television horror anthology series, co-produced by Scott Free Productions, Telescene Film Group Productions and the Canadian pay-TV channel The Movie Network...
, a short-lived horror anthology series on Showtime. Of all her 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
S. T. Joshi
Sunand Tryambak Joshi — known as S. T. Joshi — is an award-winning Indian American literary critic, novelist, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction...
.
Personal life
Brite is a transgender man, born biologically female. She has written and talked much about her gender dysphoria/gender identityGender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
issues. She self-identifies with gay males, and as of August 2010, has begun the process of gender reassignment
Sex reassignment therapy
Sex reassignment therapy is an umbrella term for all medical procedures regarding sex reassignment of both transgender and intersexual people...
. Brite has written that, while gender theorists like Kate Bornstein
Kate Bornstein
Kate Bornstein is a Jewish-American author, playwright, performance artist, and gender theorist.-Biography:Born in Neptune City, New Jersey, Bornstein studied Theater Arts with John Emigh and Jim Barnhill at Brown University . Bornstein joined the Church of Scientology but later became...
would call him a "nonoperative transsexual", Brite herself would not insist on a pedantic label, writing "I'm just me". She stated on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
that she prefers male pronouns to be used when referring to her, stating "Remember I said I'd let people know when I became uncomfortable with female pronouns? I'm there. I'd prefer the standard male ones, please."
She lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
and Athens, Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
prior to returning to New Orleans in 1993. She is a fan of UNC
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, but says her greatest support is for her hometown football team, the New Orleans Saints
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are members of the South Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League ....
.
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
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
and the failure of the federal levee system in 2005, Brite at first opted to stay at home, but she eventually relocated 80 miles (128.7 km) away to her mother's home in Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. She used her blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
to update her fans regarding the situation, including the unknown status of her house and many of her 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. She was quoted in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
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."
On August 30, 2008, as Hurricane Gustav
Hurricane Gustav
The name Gustav has been used for five tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean:* 1984's Tropical Storm Gustav - Spent most of its existence as a tropical depression hovering over Bermuda, no major damage was reported....
approached the city, Brite and DeBarr both elected to remain in New Orleans and not evacuate. 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. In August 2009 New Orleans' Gambit Weekly
Gambit Weekly
Gambit is a New Orleans, Louisiana-based free alternative weekly newspaper that was established in 1981 as Gambit Weekly. Gambit features reporting about local politics, news, food and drink, arts, music, film, events, environmental issues and other topics, as well as listings...
publication published reader-poll results naming Brite in second place as an ever-popular "Best Local Author."
Retirement
On June 9, 2010, Brite officially stated that she was retired in a post entitled 'I'm Basically Retired (For Now)' on her LivejournalLiveJournal
LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....
. Sje stated that she had 'completely lost the ability to interact with her body of work,' then went on to state that business issues were in part a cause of this issue. Along with this, she specifically mentioned being unable to disconnect with aspects of her life relating to Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
. She ended her statement by saying that she missed having relationships with her characters and that she did not feel the need to write for publication.
Novels and novellas
- Lost Souls (1992)
- Drawing BloodDrawing BloodDrawing Blood is a 1993 novel, the second novel from author Poppy Z. Brite.-Synopsis:The novel concerns Trevor McGee, a comic book artist and sole survivor of a family murder-suicide, and Zachary Bosch, a bisexual hacker, and their arrival at McGee's old family home in Missing Mile, North...
(1993) - Exquisite CorpseExquisite Corpse (novel)Exquisite Corpse is the third horror novel by Poppy Z. Brite. The protagonist of the story is Andrew Compton, an English convicted homosexual serial killer, cannibal and necrophiliac.-Plot summary:...
(1996) - The Crow: The Lazarus Heart (1998)
- Plastic JesusPlastic Jesus (novella)Plastic Jesus is a novella by Poppy Z. Brite, published by Subterranean Press in 2000. The story concerns Seth Grealy and Peyton Masters, frontmen of the rock and roll band The Kydds...
(novella; 2000) - The Value of X (2002)
- LiquorLiquor (novel)Liquor is Poppy Z. Brite's first novel in the liquor novels, which revolves around the two young chefs Rickey and G-man, their restaurant and their life in New Orleans. It's been released in the United States on March 16, 2004.-External links:* * *...
(2004) - Triads (2004) (with Christa FaustChrista FaustChrista Faust is an American author who writes original novels, as well as novelizations and media tie-ins. Faust won the 2009 Crimespree Award for Money Shot.-Novels:*Control Freak...
) - Prime (2005)
- Soul Kitchen (2006)
- D*U*C*K (novella; 2007)
Short story collections
- WormwoodWormwood (book)Wormwood, originally published as Swamp Foetus, is a collection of short stories by New Orleanian horror fiction author Poppy Z. Brite. It was first published by Borderlands Press, a small press publisher of horror fiction, in 1993...
(also published in limited edition and in the UK under author's original title as Swamp Foetus; 1993) - Are You Loathsome Tonight?Are You Loathsome Tonight?Are You Loathsome Tonight? is a collection of short stories by New Orleanian author Poppy Z. Brite published in 1998 by Gauntlet Press.- Stories :*Introduction by Peter Straub*In Vermis Veritas*Arise...
(also published in the UK as Self-Made Man; 1998) - Wrong ThingsWrong ThingsWrong Things is a short story collection by Poppy Z. Brite and Caitlin R. Kiernan. It was released by Subterranean Press in 2001. The cover art and illustrations were provided by Canadian artist Richard A. Kirk...
(with Caitlin R. KiernanCaitlin R. KiernanCaitlín Rebekah Kiernan is the author of many science fiction and dark fantasy works, including seven novels, many comic books, more than one hundred published short stories, novellas, and vignettes, and numerous scientific papers.- Overview :Born in Dublin, Ireland, she moved to the United States...
; 2001) - The Devil You KnowThe Devil You Know (book)The Devil You Know is a collection of short stories by New Orleanian author Poppy Z. Brite published in 2003 by Subterranean Press.- Stories :*"Dispatches from Tanganyika: A Foreword"*The Devil You Know...
(2003) - Antediluvian Tales (2007)
Short stories
N.B.: These were originally published as chapbookChapbook
A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...
s.
- "R.I.P.R.I.P. (story)"R.I.P." is a short story by Poppy Z. Brite, originally published as a chapbook, published by Gauntlet Press and was limited to only 200 copies. It consists of a letter written to William S. Burroughs after Brite had learned of his death. The cover of the chapbook was drawn by Brite herself....
" (1998) - "The Seed of Lost Souls" (1999)
- "Stay AwakeStay Awake (story)"Stay Awake" is a short story by Poppy Z. Brite, first published as a chapbook by Camelot Books in 2000 and reprinted in Gauntlet Press's tenth anniversary edition of her 1992 novel Lost Souls. The story takes place six months after the events of Lost Souls, and answers what is, according to the...
" (2000) - "Lantern Marsh" (2000) (first published in October DreamsOctober DreamsOctober Dreams edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish is an anthology of Halloween-themed memories and short stories from many award winning names in dark fantasy and horror fiction...
) - "Would You?" (2000)
- "Pansu" (2001)
- "Con Party at Hotel California" (2002)
- "The Feast of St. Rosalie" (2003)
- "Used Stories" (2004)
- "Crown of ThornsCrown of Thorns (short story)"Crown of Thorns" is a short story by Poppy Z. Brite, published in Subterranean Magazine and as a chapbook by Subterranean Press in 2005. The story features Brite's character New Orleans forensic pathologist Dr. Brite....
" (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 StoryCourtney Love: The Real StoryCourtney Love: The Real Story is a biography of rock musician Courtney Love, written by Poppy Z. Brite. The book, Brite's first full-length work of nonfiction, was published by Simon and Schuster in 1997. Though technically unauthorized, Love actually paid to Brite in order to write the book....
(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 StreetShadows Over Baker StreetShadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror! is an anthology of stories, each by a different author and each concerning an exploit of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes set against the backdrop of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos...
, 2003; Ballantine Books) - "Wandering the Borderlands" (Masques V, 2006; Gauntlet Press)
- "System FreezeThe Matrix ComicsThe Matrix Comics is a collection of short comic book stories set in the fictional universe of The Matrix series, originally released as webcomics on the series' official website from 1999 to 2004,...
" (Matrix webcomic, illustrated by Dave DormanDave DormanDave Dorman is a science fiction, horror and fantasy illustrator.-Background:Dorman's parents are Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jack N. Dorman and Phyllis Dorman. Both parents are deceased. Dorman is married to award-winning TV/video producer, writer and publicist Denise Dorman of WriteBrain Media...
and published in The Matrix Comics volume 2) - "The Gulf" (Subteranean Tales of Dark Fantasy, 2008; Subteranean Press)
External links
- Poppy Z. Brite Official Website
- Poppy Z. Brite's Cat Rescue
- Poppy Z. Brite's LiveJournal
- All the Brite Stuff; Nola.com article