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KB Brookins

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KB Brookins (born August 28, 1995) is a Black American author, poet, creative nonfiction writer, and visual artist. Brookins is a 2023 Creative Writing fellow with the National Endowment for the Arts[1] and the author of three books: How To Identify Yourself with a Wound,[2] Freedom House,[3] and Pretty: A Memoir[4][5].

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 28)
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
OccupationWriter
EducationTexas Christian University (BA)
University of Texas at Austin (MFA - in progress)
GenresPoetry, Creative Nonfiction
Notable worksPretty: A Memoir (2024), Freedom House (2023), How To Identify Yourself With a Wound (2022)
Notable awardsNational Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, Stonewall Book Awards Barbara Gittings Literature Award
Website
www.earthtokb.com

Early life and education

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Brookins was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas.[6] They first became interested in poetry in 7th grade after a teacher introduced them to the genre.[7] They started writing their own poetry in high school.[8]

Brookins attended Texas Christian University and graduated in 2017.[9]

Career

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Brookins received the 2022 Treehouse Climate Action Prize from the Academy of American Poets for their poem "Good Grief".[10] Their poetry chapbook How To Identify Yourself with a Wound won the Saguaro Poetry Prize and a Writer's League of Texas Discovery Prize.[11][12] It was also selected as a 2023 Stonewall Honor Book Award through the American Library Association. [13]

Freedom House explores themes of race, transgender identity, and gentrification among others.[14] 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."[15]Karla J. Strand of Ms. included it in "the best poetry of the last year".[16]Freedom House won the 2024 Stonewall Book Award Barbara Gittings Literature Award and an award with the Texas Institute of Letters.[17] Freedom House was named a best book of 2023 by Autostraddle, Texas Observer, and Chicago Review of Books.[18][19][20][21]

Pretty has gotten favorable reviews in Kirkus among other venues.[22] Brookins worked as a Program Coordinator at The University of Texas at Austin’s Gender and Sexuality Center.[23][24] Brookins founded two nonprofit organizations in Austin, Texas: Interfaces [25][26] and Embrace Austin.[27] 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."[28]

Brookins is the subject of a documentary that premieres at the 2024 BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival.[29] Brookins turned their book Freedom House into an art exhibit, which premiered in Austin, Texas in April 2024.[30]

Works

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Books

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  • —— (2024). Pretty. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 9780593537145.[31]
  • —— (2023). Freedom House. Deep Vellum. ISBN 9781646052639.[32]
  • —— (2022). How To Identify Yourself With a Wound. Kallisto Gaia Press. ISBN 9781952224133.[33]

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.[48]
  • —— (2019). In Another Life.[49]

Art Exhibits

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  • Freedom House: An Exhibition. 2024[30]

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 moved to Austin, TX in 2018.[2] Brookins identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.[57] They currently are a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.[58]

References

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  1. ^   This article incorporates public domain material from Meet the Creative Writing Fellows: KB Brookins. National Endowment for the Arts.
  2. ^ a b St. Jude, Jenn (2022). "Validated, Represented, and Connected to a Larger Narrative: An Interview with KB". Chicago Review of Books.
  3. ^ Ripatrazone, Nick (2023), "Must-read Poetry: Spring 2023", The Millions
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ ortiz, mónica teresa (2024-05-28). "Book review of Pretty by KB Brookins". BookPage | Discover your next great book!. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  6. ^ "KB (Brookins)". id.loc.gov. Library of Congress. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  7. ^ "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.
  8. ^ "A Normal Interview with KB Brookins by James O'Bannon". The Normal School. 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-05-16.
  9. ^ Wilson, Jeff (2023-05-10). "KB Brookins: How It Started ... How It's Going". TCU Magazine. Retrieved 2023-05-16.
  10. ^ a b "The Academy of American Poets Announces 2022 Winners of the Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize". poets.org. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  11. ^ "Saguaro Poetry Prize Winner". Kallisto Gaia Press. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  12. ^ a b "2022 Book Award Winners and Finalists". Writers League of Texas. 2023-09-14. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
  13. ^ "Stonewall Book Awards List". American Library Association. 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  14. ^ "Freedom House". Deep Vellum. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  15. ^ "The Best New Poetry Collections to Read (or Preorder) Now". Vogue. 2023-04-04. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ a b "Home". texasinstituteofletters.org. 2022-05-01. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  18. ^ a b RAGARCIA (2024-02-05). ""Freedom House" wins 2024 Stonewall Barbara Gittings Literature Award". News and Press Center. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  19. ^ Casey (2023-12-12). "65 of the Best Queer Books of 2023". Autostraddle. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  20. ^ "61 Notable Debuts by Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender Non-conforming Authors". Chicago Review of Books. 2023-12-22. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  21. ^ Olsen, Lise (2023-12-13). "The Texas Observer's 2023 Must-Read Lone Star Books". The Texas Observer. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  22. ^ "Pretty by KB Brookins: 9780593537145 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  23. ^ "Speakers discuss steps for change at UT during final day of State of Black UT". The Daily Texan. 2021.
  24. ^ Field, Kelly (February 12, 2024). "What's In a Name?". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
  25. ^ Weller, Dorothy Meiburg (July 30, 2021). "In Austin, indie creative writing communities thrive beyond the ivory tower". Sightlines.
  26. ^ Neumann, Laiken (2021). ""Very Queer and Very Hip-Hop": ATX Interfaces Cuts the Crap With Community-Based Art Programming". The Austin Chronicle.
  27. ^ Sullivan, Beth (2021). "Embrace Austin Seeks to Build Bridges Between Queer People and Queer Initiatives". The Austin Chronicle.
  28. ^ Weller, Dorothy Meiburg (2021-07-30). "In Austin, indie creative writing communities thrive beyond the ivory tower". Sightlines. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  29. ^ "BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2024". BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2024. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  30. ^ a b Anderson, Carys. "The Off Beat: KB Brookins' Poetry Book-Turned-Art Exhibit". www.austinchronicle.com. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  31. ^ "Pretty by KB Brookins: 9780593537145". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  32. ^ "Freedom House". Deep Vellum. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  33. ^ "How to Identify Yourself with a Wound". Kallisto Gaia Press. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  34. ^ a b c d "March 2023". Poetry Magazine. Poetry Foundation. March 2023.
  35. ^ "KB Brookins | Kenyon Review Author". The Kenyon Review. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
  36. ^ "miCRo: "What's on your mind, KB?" by KB Brookins - The Cincinnati Review". 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  37. ^ "Love Machine | Poetry Database | Split This Rock". www.splitthisrock.org. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  38. ^ Poets, Academy of American. "Good Grief by KB Brookins - Poems | Academy of American Poets". Poets.org. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  39. ^ "We Are Not Untouchable". 2022-09-10. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  40. ^ Juarez, Alex (2022-05-02). "My Gender Won't Fit in the Family Car". Electric Literature. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  41. ^ "American Poetry Review - KB Brookins - "& Somehow, Men Are Nicer to Me Now"". American Poetry Review. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  42. ^ "KB Brookins on "T Shot #4"". Poetry Society of America. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  43. ^ "Freedom House: A Sonic Bibliography". Oxford American. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  44. ^ Brookins, K. B. (2022-12-21). "Trans Texans Are Being Surveilled, This Is Everyone's Issue". Autostraddle. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  45. ^ "How Kendrick Lamar Stumbles Toward Queer And Trans Allyship On "Auntie Diaries" - Okayplayer". www.okayplayer.com. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  46. ^ "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.
  47. ^ "Why I Won't Be Coming Out to My Family During the Holidays". Teen Vogue. 2021-12-07. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  48. ^ "A new relationship to pain : poems". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  49. ^ "zines". KB Brookins. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  50. ^ "Nia KB". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  51. ^ "2021 Emerging Voices Fellows and Mentors". PEN America.
  52. ^ "Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize | Academy of American Poets". Academy of American Poets. 2022.
  53. ^ "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.
  54. ^ "Current Artist in Residence Archives". Civil Rights Corps. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  55. ^ "Meet the Creative Writing Fellows: KB Brookins".
  56. ^ admin (2009-09-09). "Stonewall Book Awards List". Round Tables. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  57. ^ Rangel, Leslie (2021). "Poet using spoken, written word to provide hope and understanding". Fox 7. Retrieved 2021-06-11.
  58. ^ "Profile for KB Brookins at UT Austin". liberalarts.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
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