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KB Brookins
American author and poet (born 1995) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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].
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Early life and education
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
Summarize
Perspective
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]
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Works
Books
- —— (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
- —— (March 2023). "My therapist called it climate despair". Poetry Magazine.[34]
- —— (March 2023). "Notes After Watching the Inauguration". Poetry Magazine.[34]
- —— (March 2023). "Snake Plant". Poetry Magazine.[34]
- —— (March 2023). "T Shot #9: Ode to my Sharps Container". Poetry Magazine.[34]
- “T Shot #5: Ode to My Sharps Container” (republished). Metro Weekly. 2023
- "Remix #2". Kenyon Review. 2023[35]
- "What's On Your Mind, KB?". Cincinnati Review. 2023[36]
- "Love Machine". Split This Rock. 2023[37]
- “Good Grief”. Academy of American Poets (Poem-A-Day). 2022[38]
- "Poem Against Black ____ Magic". Poetry Northwest. 2022[39]
- “KB’s Origin Story”, “Yebba’s Heartbreak”. Electric Literature. 2022[40]
- “& Somehow, Men Are Nicer to me Now”. American Poetry Review. 2022[41]
Essays
- “KB Brookins on T Shot #4”. Poetry Society of America. 2023[42]
- "Freedom House: A Sonic Bibliography". Oxford American. 2023[43]
- "Trans Texans Are Being Surveilled, This Is Everyone’s Issue". Autostraddle. 2022[44]
- "How Kendrick Lamar Stumbles Toward Queer And Trans Allyship On 'Auntie Diaries'". Okayplayer. 2022[45]
- "This Is What It's Like Going To The Gynecologist When You're Black, Trans And In Texas". HuffPost. 2022[46]
- "Why Coming Out to My Family Isn't on My Holiday To-Do List". Teen Vogue. 2021[47]
Zines
- —— (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
- Freedom House: An Exhibition. 2024[30]
In Anthology
- Emerge: Lambda Literary 2018 Fellows anthology. Lambda Literary Foundation. 2019. ISBN 9781799248040.
Edited
- Winter Storm Project: Austin, Texas Artists on Winter Storm Uri. Winter Storm Project. 13 February 2022. ISBN 9780578361123.
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Awards and fellowships
- 2018 Lambda Literary Foundation Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellow (Poetry)[50]
- 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow (Poetry) [51]
- 2022 Academy of American Poets Treehouse Climate Action Prize Recipient [52][10]
- 2022 Western Illinois University Fred Ewing Case and Lola Case Writer-in-Residence[53]
- 2022 Writer's League of Texas Discovery Prizer Winner - Poetry[12]
- 2022-23 Civil Rights Corps Poet in Residence[54]
- 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow[55]
- 2023 Stonewall Book Award Honor Book[56]
- 2023 Texas Institute of Letters Award[17]
- 2024 Stonewall Book Award Barbara Gittings Literature Award for Poetry[18]
- 2025 Saints & Sinners LGBTQ+ Literary Festival Dorothy Allison / Felice Picano Emerging Writer Award[57]
- 2025 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award in Creative Non-Fiction[58]
- 2025 ACLU of Texas Artist-in-Residence[59]
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Personal life
Brookins moved to Austin, TX in 2018.[2] Brookins identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.[60] They currently are a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.[61]
References
External links
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