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KB Brookins
KB Brookins, a Black American writer with brown skin, poses with their hands in their pockets. They are wearing a pink shirt, blue jeans, and a Black belt. The background is purple and green.
KB Brookins, Black American writer
Born (1995-08-28) August 28, 1995 (age 29)
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
OccupationWriter
EducationTexas Christian University (BA)
University of Texas at Austin (MFA)
GenresPoetry, Creative Nonfiction
Notable worksPretty: A Memoir, Freedom House, How To Identify Yourself With a Wound
Notable awardsNational Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, Stonewall Book Award, Lambda Literary Award
Website
www.earthtokb.com

KB Brookins (born August 28, 1995) is a Black American author. Brookins is a 2023 Creative Writing fellow with the National Endowment for the Arts and the author of three books: How To Identify Yourself with a Wound, Freedom House, and Pretty: A Memoir.[1][2]

Early life and education

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Brookins was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas.[3] They first became interested in poetry in 7th grade after a teacher introduced them to the genre.[4] They started writing their own poetry in high school.[5]

Brookins attended Texas Christian University and graduated in 2017.[6]

Career

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Brookins received the 2022 Treehouse Climate Action Prize from the Academy of American Poets for their poem "Good Grief".[7] Their poetry chapbook How To Identify Yourself with a Wound won the Saguaro Poetry Prize and a Writer's League of Texas Discovery Prize.[8][9] It was also selected as a 2023 Stonewall Honor Book Award through the American Library Association.[10]

Freedom House explores themes of race, transgender identity, and gentrification among others.[11] Vogue called their writing style in the book "urgent and timely while still holding space for the possibility of a life lived on one’s own terms."[12] Karla J. Strand of Ms. included it in "the best poetry of the last year".[13] Freedom House won the 2024 Stonewall Book Award Barbara Gittings Literature Award and an award with the Texas Institute of Letters.[14] It was named a best book of 2023 by Autostraddle, Texas Observer, and Chicago Review of Books.[15][16][17][18]

Pretty has gotten favorable reviews in Kirkus among other venues.[19][20] It is a finalist for the 2025 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Nonfiction.[21] Brookins worked as a Program Coordinator at The University of Texas at Austin’s Gender and Sexuality Center and founded two nonprofit organizations in Austin, Texas: Interfaces and Embrace Austin.[22][23] Brookins stated that Interfaces started "as a response to 'a serious problem with accessibility' of all kinds, including physical and financial, in the literary and arts events they attended in Austin."[24]

Brookins is the subject of a documentary that premieres at the 2024 BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival.[25] Brookins turned their book Freedom House into an art exhibit, which premiered in April 2024.[26]

Works

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Books

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  • —— (2024). Pretty. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 9780593537145.[27]
  • —— (2023). Freedom House. Deep Vellum. ISBN 9781646052639.[28]
  • —— (2022). How To Identify Yourself With a Wound. Kallisto Gaia Press. ISBN 9781952224133.[29]

Poems

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Essays

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Zines

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  • —— (2023). Nothing Was the Cause of Their Deaths. Winter Storm Project. ISBN 9798218222475.
  • —— (2021). A New Relationship to Pain. LibroMobile. OCLC 1296956995.[44]
  • —— (2019). In Another Life.[45]

Art Exhibits

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  • Freedom House: An Exhibition. 2024[26]

In Anthology

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Edited

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  • Winter Storm Project: Austin, Texas Artists on Winter Storm Uri. Winter Storm Project. 13 February 2022. ISBN 9780578361123.

Awards and fellowships

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Personal life

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Brookins identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.[59]

References

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  1. ^ Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from Meet the Creative Writing Fellows: KB Brookins. National Endowment for the Arts.
  2. ^ St. Jude, Jenn (2022). "Validated, Represented, and Connected to a Larger Narrative: An Interview with KB". Chicago Review of Books.
  3. ^ "KB (Brookins)". id.loc.gov. Library of Congress. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  4. ^ "KB Brookins and Holly Amos on Systemic Freedom, the Power of Insistence, and What People Don't Understand about Texas". The Poetry Magazine Podcast (Podcast). Poetry Foundation. 2023-05-16. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  5. ^ "A Normal Interview with KB Brookins by James O'Bannon". The Normal School. 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-05-16.
  6. ^ Wilson, Jeff (2023-05-10). "KB Brookins: How It Started ... How It's Going". TCU Magazine. Retrieved 2023-05-16.
  7. ^ a b "The Academy of American Poets Announces 2022 Winners of the Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize". poets.org. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  8. ^ "Saguaro Poetry Prize Winner". Kallisto Gaia Press. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  9. ^ a b "2022 Book Award Winners and Finalists". Writers League of Texas. 2023-09-14. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
  10. ^ "Stonewall Book Awards List". American Library Association. 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  11. ^ "Freedom House". Deep Vellum. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  12. ^ "The Best New Poetry Collections to Read (or Preorder) Now". Vogue. 2023-04-04. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  13. ^ Strand, Karla J. (2023-04-20). "Reads for the Rest of Us: The Best Poetry of the Last Year". Ms. Magazine. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  14. ^ a b "Home". texasinstituteofletters.org. 2022-05-01. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  15. ^ a b RAGARCIA (2024-02-05). ""Freedom House" wins 2024 Stonewall Barbara Gittings Literature Award". News and Press Center. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  16. ^ Casey (2023-12-12). "65 of the Best Queer Books of 2023". Autostraddle. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  17. ^ "61 Notable Debuts by Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender Non-conforming Authors". Chicago Review of Books. 2023-12-22. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  18. ^ Olsen, Lise (2023-12-13). "The Texas Observer's 2023 Must-Read Lone Star Books". The Texas Observer. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  19. ^ Specter, Emma (2024-05-23). "In Their New Memoir 'Pretty', KB Brookins Blends Poetry and Prose to Paint a Vivid Portrait of Black Southern Transmasculinity". Vogue. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  20. ^ ortiz, mónica teresa (2024-05-28). "Book review of Pretty by KB Brookins". BookPage | Discover your next great book!. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  21. ^ Lewis, L. D. (2025-07-30). "Announcing the Finalists for the 37th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
  22. ^ Sullivan, Beth (2021). "Embrace Austin Seeks to Build Bridges Between Queer People and Queer Initiatives". The Austin Chronicle.
  23. ^ Field, Kelly (February 12, 2024). "What's In a Name?". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
  24. ^ Weller, Dorothy Meiburg (2021-07-30). "In Austin, indie creative writing communities thrive beyond the ivory tower". Sightlines. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  25. ^ "BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2024". BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2024. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  26. ^ a b Anderson, Carys. "The Off Beat: KB Brookins' Poetry Book-Turned-Art Exhibit". www.austinchronicle.com. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  27. ^ "Pretty by KB Brookins: 9780593537145". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  28. ^ "Freedom House". Deep Vellum. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  29. ^ "How to Identify Yourself with a Wound". Kallisto Gaia Press. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  30. ^ a b c d "March 2023". Poetry Magazine. Poetry Foundation. March 2023.
  31. ^ "KB Brookins | Kenyon Review Author". The Kenyon Review. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
  32. ^ "miCRo: "What's on your mind, KB?" by KB Brookins - The Cincinnati Review". 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  33. ^ "Love Machine | Poetry Database | Split This Rock". www.splitthisrock.org. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  34. ^ Poets, Academy of American. "Good Grief by KB Brookins - Poems | Academy of American Poets". Poets.org. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  35. ^ "We Are Not Untouchable". 2022-09-10. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  36. ^ Juarez, Alex (2022-05-02). "My Gender Won't Fit in the Family Car". Electric Literature. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  37. ^ "American Poetry Review - KB Brookins - "& Somehow, Men Are Nicer to Me Now"". American Poetry Review. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  38. ^ "KB Brookins on "T Shot #4"". Poetry Society of America. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  39. ^ "Freedom House: A Sonic Bibliography". Oxford American. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  40. ^ Brookins, K. B. (2022-12-21). "Trans Texans Are Being Surveilled, This Is Everyone's Issue". Autostraddle. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  41. ^ "How Kendrick Lamar Stumbles Toward Queer And Trans Allyship On "Auntie Diaries" - Okayplayer". www.okayplayer.com. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  42. ^ "This Is What It's Like Going To The Gynecologist When You're Black, Trans And In Texas". HuffPost. 2022-02-03. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  43. ^ "Why I Won't Be Coming Out to My Family During the Holidays". Teen Vogue. 2021-12-07. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  44. ^ "A new relationship to pain : poems". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  45. ^ "zines". KB Brookins. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  46. ^ "Nia KB". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  47. ^ "2021 Emerging Voices Fellows and Mentors". PEN America.
  48. ^ "Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize | Academy of American Poets". Academy of American Poets. 2022.
  49. ^ "Poet KB to Serve as Fred Ewing Case and Lola Case Writer-in-Residence Sept. 15 - WIU News". www.wiu.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  50. ^ "Current Artist in Residence Archives". Civil Rights Corps. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  51. ^ "Meet the Creative Writing Fellows: KB Brookins".
  52. ^ admin (2009-09-09). "Stonewall Book Awards List". Round Tables. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  53. ^ "Saints & Sinners Festival Renames Award to Honor Dorothy Allison, Felice Picano". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  54. ^ Anderson, Marc (2025-01-02). "GLCA Announces Winner of 2025 New Writers Award". Great Lakes Colleges Association. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  55. ^ Aton, Francesca (2025-05-01). "The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas Names 2025–26 Artists-in-Residence". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  56. ^ "KB Brookins". Ragdale. Retrieved 2025-08-01.
  57. ^ "KB Brookins - Black Mountain Institute". 2025-05-16. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
  58. ^ Lewis, L. D. (2025-07-30). "Announcing the Finalists for the 37th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
  59. ^ Rangel, Leslie (2021). "Poet using spoken, written word to provide hope and understanding". Fox 7. Retrieved 2021-06-11.
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