Poppy Z. Brite's writing style is best described as 'visceral'. She is never one to skimp on the grisly details, creating some amazingly-textured descriptions. Many writers create images that you can see; Ms. Brite's can be smelled, tasted and felt.
Having read her novels and short stories, her writing seems to centre around death, the undead, sex, drugs, New Orleans, goths and homosexuality. She should probably be avoided if you're squeamish about any of the above. If you like them, however, and wouldn't say no to a bunch of music references while you're at it, Ms. Brite is probably the writer for you.
Regarding claims of gothness, in an interview with Bizarre magazine she makes the distinction between visigoths who are active and visible on the scene, and ostragoths who sit in their bedrooms all day. She claims to be in the latter category.*
She was born in 1967 in New Orleans, and (as of 2000) lives there with her partner Chris, three dogs, 19 cats and a king snake. In between writing, she has worked as a "candymaker, mouse caretaker, artist's model, short order cook, and stripper".**
Here follows what is hopefully a complete list of her books:
Exquisite Corpse is probably her most disturbing book, containing as it does two necrophiliac, gay serial killers, lots of murder, lots of sex, one suicide, some implied incest, heroin and some cannibalism. It's heavily influenced by Jeffrey Dahmer. Drawing Blood is probably her best book, being somehow more subtle than the others. It was her second novel, and is probably a good one to start with. It's a long time since I read Lost Souls, but that was the first one I read and it captivated me, so that would probably be a good first one, too.
* http://www.bizarremag.com/lives/brite.php
Thanks very much to graymalkn for pointing out that I'd originally got these two mixed up, and for providing the reference.
**Biographical information from http://www.poppyzbrite.com/bio.html, last accessed 30/09/2003.