I just learned from reading one of author Kevin Killian's Amazon.com reviews (you really need to subscribe to the RSS feed of Kevin's reviews) that Canadian black queer skinhead writer Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite has died. Here is his brief obituary.

I can't remember quite how I learned about him - probably someone like Dennis Cooper or Kevin had recommended Laz's first book, Wigger. At the time of reading it, I assumed that the titled "Wigger" meant it was written by a white guy - it wasn't until I met him when he came for a reading at New Langton Arts in San Francisco that everything came into focus - despite what some people might think was a contradiction, he was a black queer skinhead from Canada.

I published pieces by him in issues 16 and 17 of my zine Holy Titclamps.

His second novel was Ratz Are Nice (PSP) which has a cover picture with Laz standing in front, a compact skinhead dynamo, backed up by some of his compatriots.

I had lost touch with him over the years. Some people could cite various incidents that led them to cut off contact, but we were always on good terms when we were in touch, because I had some understanding and compassion for the reasons for his action. I believe he was bipolar, and sometimes the silences from his end were no doubt the sound of depression.

He wrote in his own argot, an inimitable flavor of the English language, and as soon as I have a chance I am going to dive in again and read his words and hopefully hear the echoes of his voice.

RIP Laz aka Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite