William J. Martin | |
|---|---|
 Martin in 2014 | |
| Born | (1967-05-25)May 25, 1967 (age 57) Bowling Green, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author |
| Period | 1985–2010, 2018–present |
| Genre | |
| Notable works | Lost Souls (1992) Drawing Blood (1993) Exquisite Corpse (1996) The Value of X (2002) Liquor (2004) Prime (2005) Soul Kitchen (2006) |
| Website | |
www | |
William Joseph Martin (born May 25, 1967), formerlyPoppy Z. Brite, is an American author. He initially achieved fame in thegothic horror genre of literature in the early 1990s by publishing a string of successful novels and short story collections. He is best known for his novelsLost Souls (1992),Drawing Blood (1993), andExquisite Corpse (1996). His later work moved into the genre ofdark comedy, with many stories set in theNew Orleans restaurant world. Martin's novels are typically standalone books but may feature recurring characters from previous novels and short stories. Much of his work features openlybisexual andgay characters.
Martin is best known for writinggothic andhorror novels and short stories. His trademarks include featuring gay men as main characters, graphic sexual descriptions, and an often wry treatment of gruesome events. Some of Martin's better known novels includeLost Souls (1992),Drawing Blood (1993), and the controversialserial killer novelExquisite Corpse (1996); he has also released the short fiction collectionsWormwood (originally published asSwamp Foetus; 1993),Are You Loathsome Tonight? (also published asSelf-Made Man; 1998),Wrong Things (withCaitlín R. Kiernan; 2001), andThe Devil You Know (2003). His "Calcutta: Lord of Nerves" was selected to represent the year 1992 in the story anthologyThe Century's Best Horror Fiction.[1]
In a 1998 interview,[2] in response to a comment that "Growing up in the American South [shaped him] as a writer", Martin mentioned that Southern writersCarson McCullers,Truman Capote,Tennessee Williams,Flannery O'Connor,Harper Lee,Thomas Wolfe andWilliam Faulkner also influenced his writing. Answering a follow-up question about his literary influences, he also included "Bradbury,Nabokov,W.S. Burroughs,Stephen King,Ramsey Campbell,Shirley Jackson,Thomas Ligotti,Kathe Koja,Dennis Cooper,Dorothy Parker,Dylan Thomas,Harlan Ellison,Peter Straub,Paul Theroux,Baudelaire,Poe,Lovecraft,John Lennon... I could rattle off ten or twenty more easily; they're all in there somewhere."
Martin wroteCourtney Love: The Real Story (1997), a biography of singerCourtney Love. It was officially "unauthorized", but he acknowledged that the work was done at Love's suggestion and with her cooperation, including access to her personal journal and letters.[3]
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Martin moved away from horror fiction and gothic themes while still writing about gay characters. The critically acclaimedLiquor novels—Liquor (2004),Prime (2005), andSoul Kitchen (2006)—aredark comedies set in the New Orleans restaurant world.The Value of X (2002) depicts the beginning of the careers of the protagonists of theLiquor series—Gary "G-Man" Stubbs and John "Rickey" Rickey; other stories, including several in his most recent collectionThe Devil You Know (2003) and the novellaD*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. Martin hopes to eventually write three more novels in theLiquor series, tentatively titledDead Shrimp Blues,Hurricane Stew, andDouble Shot. However, in late 2006, he ceased publishing withThree Rivers Press, the trade paperback division ofRandom House that published the first threeLiquor novels, and is currently taking a hiatus from fiction writing. He has describedAntediluvian Tales, a short story collection published bySubterranean Press in November 2007, as "if not my last book ever, then my last one for some time." He still writes short non-fiction pieces, including guest editorials for the New OrleansTimes-Picayune and a food article forChile Pepper Magazine.
Martin 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 storyThe Sixth Sentinel (filmed asThe Dream Sentinel) made up one segment of episode 209 ofThe Hunger, a short-lived horror anthology series onShowtime.
Critical essays on Martin's fiction appear inSupernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror (2003) byBrian Stableford[4] andThe Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) byS. T. Joshi.
On June 9, 2010, Martin officially stated that he was retired from writing, in a post entitled "I'm Basically Retired (For Now)" on hisLivejournal.[5] He stated that he had "completely lost the ability to interact with [his] body of work" and then went on to state that business issues were a partial cause. He also specifically mentioned being unable to disconnect from aspects of his life relating toHurricane 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. Martin has since created a series of artworks themed on New Orleans and voodoo.
In 2018, Martin announced he had returned to writing with a non-fiction project entitledWater If God Wills It: Religion and Spirituality in the Work of Stephen King.[6]
In August 2023, Martin announced on his own Facebook page that he was writing fiction again, but that it would be a long time until it would be published.[7]
Martin was born in Bowling Green,Warren County, Kentucky, at Western University Hospital.[8] He is atrans man and has written and talked extensively abouttransgender issues and his owngender dysphoria.[9] He is gay, and has said, "Ever since I was old enough to know what gay men were, I've considered myself a gay man that happens to have been born in a female body, and that's the perspective I'm coming from."[9] In 2003, Martin wrote that, while gender theorists likeKate Bornstein would call him a "nonoperative transsexual", Martin would not insist on a label, writing "I'm just me".[10] In 2010, he began hormone therapy, and in 2011 expressed that he would prefer to be referred to by male pronouns.[11]
On January 6, 2009, Martin was arrested at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in New Orleans as part of a peaceful demonstration in which churches in the Uptown area of the city were occupied to protest their closings.[12] In August 2009, New Orleans'sGambit publication published reader-poll results naming Martin in second place as an ever-popular "Best Local Author".[13]
Martin married his husband, photographer and artist Grey Anatoli Cross, in 2019. The couple first met in 2011.[14]
1991: (Short Fiction) -The Ash of Memory, the Dust of Desire -Nominated
1992: (First Novel) -Lost Souls -Nominated
1993: (Novel) -Drawing Blood -Nominated
1996: (Novel) -Exquisite Corpse -Nominated
Lambda Literary Award for Speculative Fiction:
1993: (Gay Men's Science Fiction/Fantasy) -Lost Souls -Nominated
1994: (Science Fiction/Fantasy) -Drawing Blood -Nominated
1993: (First Novel) -Lost Souls -Nominated
1993: (Horror/Dark Fantasy Novel) -Lost Souls -Nominated
1994: (Collection) -Swamp Foetus -Nominated
1994: (Horror) -Drawing Blood -Nominated
1995: (Anthology) -Love in Vein -Nominated
1998: (Anthology) -Love in Vein II -Nominated
1999: (Collection) -Are You Loathsome Tonight? -Nominated
1993: (Short Fiction) -Calcutta, Lord of Nerves -Nominated
1994: (Novel) -Drawing Blood -Nominated
1995: (Anthology) -Love in Vein -Nominated
International Horror Guild Award:[18]
1994: (Anthology) -Love in Vein -Won
1996: (Novel) - Drawing Blood -Nominated
1996: (Novel) -Exquisite Corpse -Nominated
1996: (Short Story) -Wormwood -Nominated
1994: (Best Newcomer/Sydney J. Bounds Award) -Won
1998: (Foreign Short story/Collection of Foreign Short Stories) -Calcutta, Lord of Nerves -Won