Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite

Canadian writer (1963–2008)

Lawrence Christopher Patrick (aka Ytzhak) Braithwaite
Born	(1963-03-17)March 17, 1963 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died	July 14, 2008(2008-07-14) (aged 45)

Lawrence Christopher Patrick (aka Ytzhak) Braithwaite (March 17, 1963 – July 14, 2008) was a Canadian novelist, spoken-word artist, dub poet, essayist, digital drummer and short fiction writer.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, he has been called "one of the outstanding Canadian prose writers alive" (Gail Scott) and linked to the "New Narrative" movement, a term coined by Steve Abbott. He was the author of the legendary cult novel Wigger.

Braithwaite's work has been praised by Dodie Bellamy for its "sublime impenetrability". and is fueled by a modernist and Fredric Jameson-influenced late modernist approach to writing and recording. His work is influenced by the musical and social realism of punk rock, opera, musique concrète, noise, hip hop, rap, industrial, black metal, country music and dub.

Braithwaite utilized the intensity of the New York City No Wave scene and the Los Angeles and Montreal hardcore punk music subcultures to compose his narrative. His family has laid him to rest in Notre-Dames-des-Neiges Cemetery, Montreal, Quebec.

Braithwaite was openly gay. He was a vocal critic of the LGBT community's sometimes inadequate response to issues of racism.

Bibliography

Wigger (1995) ISBN 1-55152-020-6
Ratz Are Nice: PSP (2000) ISBN 1-55583-554-6
Speed, thrash, death: Alamo, B. C. (with illustrations by Krista E. McLean & Max)
More at 7:30 (Notes from New Palestine)

Anthologies

Queeries: An Anthology of Gay Male Prose (ed. Dennis Denisoff, 1994): "Spunk"
Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black Literature & Art
Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian's Mirage #4/Period(ical)
Bluesprints: Anthology of Black British Columbian Literature and Orature *Redzone zine,
Of the Flesh: Dangerous Fiction
"Vanilla Primitive". in the e-journal Sleepy Brain
Nocturnes 3 Review of the Literary Arts 2005
Biting the Error: Writers Explore Narrative
Sidebrow e-journal. Archived 2007-08-23 at the Wayback Machine and Archived 2008-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
New Standards: The First Decade of Fiction at Fourteen Hills.
The World Crisis Web (ed. Danny Dayus) Revolution is Bloody
Black Ice.
The Rain Review of Books

Recordings

Logopolis with The Killing Flaw
Good Violence. D.U.N.
How fast Does Light travel (for George Scott 3rd, James Chance and Lil G).
Olivet (H.A.T.s in the Square) (featuring Intifada Al Ard).
Unnerstated (Downpressin) from Hurricane Angel "Luckily I Was Half Cat"
En Fins (Clichy Sous Bois) with Tolan McNeil (AKA The Giver).
London bomb sensation (hoffman sub dub the samo samo) lord patch vs david patrick
Unnerstated (a cappella) in Sean Lennon's Upstart Radio in Mindwalk 31: Driving to Baghdad
En Fins (Clichy Sous Bois) in Mindwalk 42: Henry, Ann Coulter & the FCC.
Just A Sect For Whiteboys In Afrika Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine

References

"Lawrence Braithwaite Obituary", Montreal Gazette, July 30, 2008.
Gail Scott, "In the Future, Where Prose is Going", Matrix 62: a special issue on New Narrative edited by Gail Scott and Corey Frost.
Aleander Lawrence's Free Williamsburg interview with Dennis Cooper
^ "Wigger world: angry, black and gay". The Gazette, May 27, 1995.
Dodie Bellamy, "Body Language", Academonia (San Francisco: Krupskaya, 2006): p. 82; available online in Fascicle 2 (Winter 2005–2006) "Dodie Bellamy". Archived from the original on 2006-09-10. Retrieved 2007-03-14.

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