KB Brookins

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 and the author of three books: How To Identify Yourself with a Wound, Freedom House, and Pretty: A Memoir .

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

Brookins attended Texas Christian University and graduated in 2017.

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

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

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

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

Poems

 * “T Shot #5: Ode to My Sharps Container” (republished). Metro Weekly. 2023
 * "Remix #2". Kenyon Review. 2023
 * "What's On Your Mind, KB?". Cincinnati Review. 2023
 * "Love Machine". Split This Rock. 2023
 * “Good Grief”. Academy of American Poets (Poem-A-Day). 2022
 * "Poem Against Black ____ Magic". Poetry Northwest. 2022
 * “KB’s Origin Story”, “Yebba’s Heartbreak”. Electric Literature. 2022
 * “& Somehow, Men Are Nicer to me Now”. American Poetry Review. 2022
 * “Good Grief”. Academy of American Poets (Poem-A-Day). 2022
 * "Poem Against Black ____ Magic". Poetry Northwest. 2022
 * “KB’s Origin Story”, “Yebba’s Heartbreak”. Electric Literature. 2022
 * “& Somehow, Men Are Nicer to me Now”. American Poetry Review. 2022

Essays

 * “KB Brookins on T Shot #4”. Poetry Society of America. 2023
 * "Freedom House: A Sonic Bibliography". Oxford American. 2023
 * "Trans Texans Are Being Surveilled, This Is Everyone’s Issue". Autostraddle. 2022
 * "How Kendrick Lamar Stumbles Toward Queer And Trans Allyship On 'Auntie Diaries'". Okayplayer. 2022
 * "This Is What It's Like Going To The Gynecologist When You're Black, Trans And In Texas". HuffPost. 2022
 * "Why Coming Out to My Family Isn't on My Holiday To-Do List". Teen Vogue. 2021

Art Exhibits

 * Freedom House: An Exhibition. 2024

Awards and fellowships

 * 2018 Lambda Literary Foundation Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellow (Poetry)
 * 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow (Poetry)
 * 2022 Academy of American Poets Treehouse Climate Action Prize Recipient
 * 2022 Western Illinois University Fred Ewing Case and Lola Case Writer-in-Residence
 * 2022 Writer's League of Texas Discovery Prizer Winner - Poetry
 * 2022-23 Civil Rights Corps Poet in Residence
 * 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow
 * 2023 Stonewall Book Award Honor Book
 * 2023 Texas Institute of Letters Award
 * 2024 Stonewall Book Award Barbara Gittings Literature Award for Poetry

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