[close] Poppy Z. Brite (born Melissa Ann Brite) is an American author born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Born a biological female, Brite has written and talked much about her gender dysphoria/gender identity issues. She self-identifies almost completely as male rather than female but makes no attempt to dress or appear male and does not expect to be referred to as "he". Brite is comfortable with the term "non-operative transsexual".

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

Brite and husband Chris DeBarr, a chef, run a de facto cat rescue and have, at any given time, between fifteen and twenty cats. Photos of the various felines are available on the "Cats" page of Brite's website. They have been known to have a few dogs and perhaps a snake as well in the menagerie.

During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Brite at first opted to stay at home, but she eventually abandoned New Orleans and her cats and relocated 80 miles 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." [close]