The name Poppy Bright is well known to fans of horror literature. She is an acclaimed mystic and horror author. Even in her preschool years, Bright began to show her writing talent, and at the age of 12 she no longer doubted that she would definitely become a popular author of fiction.
Melissa Ann Bright is the real name of the writer Poppy Zed Bright. This is how the parents called the girl at birth, only many later did she take for herself a literary pseudonym, under which she became famous throughout the world. However, this extremely extraordinary and peculiar personality, many years later, changed his name again.
Biography of an American prose writer
Poppy Bright was born in the United States of America. Her hometown is Kentucky, New Orleans. Date of birth: May 25, 1967
The parents of the future popular writer supported the hippie movement at that time. However, such a hobby did not prevent the father of the family from getting a good position at the University of New Orleans. There he worked for some time as a professor, taught economics. The family atmosphere, the city itself with its peculiarities, left a certain imprint on Poppy Bright. The influence exerted in childhood was reflected later on the plots and themes of her works. In addition, Poppy Bright from adolescence was sure that nature was wrong to make her a girl.
Poppy's parents did not live together for long after the birth of the girl. When Poppy Bright was six years old, her father and mother divorced. As a result, little Poppy moved with her mother to North Carolina. However, the parents remained on friendly terms, the mother did not forbid her daughter to communicate with her father. Therefore, Poppy often came to her hometown to stay with her dad. Poppy Bright has lived in North Carolina for over ten years.
The girl began to show her craving for creativity, art and direct writing almost from birth. Even before she learned to write properly, Poppy wrote stories. So that they did not sink into oblivion, she recorded her stories on a dictaphone. It is worth noting that the girl learned to read on her own very early. Her mother taught Poppy to read at home, so already at 3-4 years old the girl was fluent in this simple art. At the age of 5-6, when Poppy Bright had already mastered writing, she began to take notes of her children's stories, making them out in colorful booklets. At that time, no one had any doubts that in the very near future a famous author of literary works would grow out of Poppy.
An entertaining fact from the biography of the writer: her interest in everything dark, mystical, frightening began to manifest itself in early childhood. For example, one of her amateur stories was called "Attack of the Mud Monster." However, for a mother or father, her daughter's enthusiasm for mysticism and horror did not cause alarm.
Poppy Bright made the final decision that she would become a famous writer at the age of 12. At that time, she was already actively writing stories, stories, trying to ensure that they were published at least in collections. At the same time, she begins to publish her own small literary newspaper. In parallel with this, Poppy is receiving secondary education at school, but does not make active plans about where she will go after receiving a certificate. She is completely absorbed in literature and her fantastic worlds, she is not interested in studies. However, after school, Poppy Bright studied for a while at a university located in North Carolina, but she quickly gave up this business, going headlong into writing.
Despite the stubbornness of a very young author, Poppy Bright is not considered seriously in any of America's leading publications. Her stories are praised by the editor and critics, but no one is in a hurry to publish her works. It was only when Poppy Bright celebrated her eighteenth birthday that a literary newspaper agreed to publish her story. This edition was called The Horror Show. As a result, interest in the work of Poppy Bright manifested itself on the part of the readers of the newspaper edition, therefore, in the following years, several more works of the young writer appeared on the pages of the newspaper.
In 1987, Poppy Bright was already recognized in literary circles. By this time, she managed to establish herself as a talented young author working in the genres of mysticism, horror and thriller. In the same year, one of her works was published in the collection "Rising Stars", which included stories by other aspiring authors of that period. From this point on, Poppy Bright's career in literature begins to develop more confidently.
The creative path of Poppy Zed Bright
The first success in the work of Poppy Bright was the novel "Lost Souls". It was this book that allowed the young writer to be on a par with the already recognized and famous all over the world Anne Rice, whose "Vampire Chronicles" is still in great demand. However, initially, with this novel by Bright, things were not so smooth.
Douglas Winter, who had once worked on a complete biography of Stephen King, offered the young writer to start writing history. But when the novel was nevertheless written and published under his supervision, the book did not attract public attention. Even literary critics bypassed her. In 1991, Poppy Bright took her work to another publisher, and after a second release, the novel received recognition. Later, the book was reprinted 4 times due to the fact that the circulation was sold out in record time.
The next successful work was the novel "Bird Country", which was eventually released under the title "Drawings on Blood". When this book went out of print, Poppy Bright decided to return to her hometown.
Already in New Orleans, the prose writer creates a series of mystical and frightening stories - "Swamp Fetus". After some time, the collection was reissued, but the name was changed to "Wormwood".
The third full-fledged novel, which made an indelible impression on readers, was The Exquisite Corpse. At the same time, Poppy Bright for a long time could not ensure that the book was printed. Various publishers stubbornly refused the writer, as soon as they got acquainted with this work. However, in the end, it still went on sale, first in the states, and then in the UK. Later, the novel was translated into other languages and published in other countries, gaining a reputation as the most perverse, dark, but full of love work.
In 1998, Poppy Bright is working on a new big story. But her work is distracted by her acquaintance with a man named Bill Schafer, who worked in one of the largest publishing houses in America. The result of acquaintance and subsequent communication was a small novel, which was published in 1999 by Subterranean Press, where Schafer worked. Some time later, Poppy Bright published the second novel "Plastic Jesus" in the same publishing house.
Then there is a break in the work of the recognized writer. She returned only in 2003 with a new collection of short stories entitled "The Devil You Know". After him, in the next couple of years, several stories were published, written in the same style as the collection.
In 2007, Poppy Bright releases a short story and also publishes one of her children's stories, which she wrote at the age of 12.
Additional projects
During her creative activity, Poppy Zed Bright managed to work not only as a writer, but also as an editor. Several novels and collections were published under her supervision.
In 1997, a work called "The True Story of Courtney Love" was published. This work was written after the widow of Kurt Cobain herself turned to Poppy Bright.
Among the works of the writer is also listed "The Lazarus Heart" - a kind of retelling of stories about the Raven - a character in comics and not only.
It is worth noting that, despite the fact that the works of Poppy Bright are very unusual, dark, they are dominated by the line of non-traditional sexual relations, they are recognized as classics of mysticism and horror. And during her literary activity, Poppy Bright and her works were repeatedly nominated for various awards, some of which were received by the author.
Life outside of literature
In 1989, Poppy Bright was in Athens, a city in the state of Georgia. There she met a young man named Christopher DeBarr. He worked as a chef in one of the local nightclubs. As a result, the relationship moved from friendship to love, and eventually the couple got married.
Poppy Bright filed for divorce from her husband in 2011. A year earlier, the writer decided to take a brave step - she began preparations for a sex change operation.
In 2011, Poppy officially changed her name to Billy Martin, becoming a man in every sense.
At the moment, the personal life of the prose writer takes place in a large house in New Orleans. There he will live with his chosen one - Grace Cross, who works as a photographer and artist. The couple are also rumored to have an albino boa constrictor and 26 domestic cats.
