Praise for Freedom House
"If “free” is a concept that comprises the “healthiest of human abstractions,” KB’s Freedom House is a book of optimism and transformation, though not easily. The newness of the world that KB’s poems render over the course of their transition is heartening. Freedom House’s Texas-residing KB is a poet who is sharply attuned to the racial, environmental, social, and economic manifestations of systemic injustice, and politics they critique in themselves just as sharply. Realizing the optics of their transition enables a realm of privilege that they recognize as attached to a legacy of conduct that has been toxic to them and the people they love. However, such realizations are triumphs put alongside the joy found throughout Freedom House. For every daunting item, there’s a confident and brighter speculation to smile about and hold close."
- Dustin Pearson, author of A Season in Hell with Rimbaud
“This inventive collection is an astonishing achievement; Brookins’s poems range from long lyrical verses to gutting erasure poems, and every one is breathtaking.”
- Buzzfeed
“As a whole, Freedom House is emotionally exhausting, which is meant as the highest compliment. Brookins beautifully conveys a wide array of feelings with a straightforwardness and intensity that feels like a physical force, ensuring that their thoughts and experiences are impossible to ignore.”
“This book is overflowing with inventive forms and sequences that confront the challenges of being Black and trans in America under the shadow of police violence, climate catastrophe, political upheaval, and white supremacy. The poetic voice really shines (so much musicality and intertextuality within Brookins’ lines and images!).”
“Brookins’s debut full-length collection explores what it really means to be free in America, particularly as a Black, queer, trans writer living in Texas; their writing style is urgent and timely while still holding space for the possibility of a life lived on one’s own terms.”
- Vogue
“Believable, rich, and truthful. A real beacon of light.”
- Shayla Lawson, author of This is Major, a National Book Critics Circle Finalist
“KB Brookins’ Freedom House is an unapologetic, forward-dreaming manifesto for a better, shared future…Using poetry as a tool of exploration and future dreaming, Brookins builds a freedom house, brick by brick by poem.”
“Freedom House is a remarkably embodied book. Brookins poignantly depicts the physical experience of being trans and of experiencing bodily change. Their poems are visceral and painful and sometimes full of rage. They are also full of youth, lust, pleasure, and hope.”
“Through rich imagery, deftly-constructed lines, and a gift for narrative pacing, Brookins crafts a compelling collection; as the final wordplay in the poems suggest, Freedom House is a poetic manifestation— and lyric manifesto— of being alive.”
“The poems deal with identity, place, belonging and trauma in a way that shifts from devastating to hopeful, but is always beautifully crafted. There were so many pages that I dogeared…. I loved this collection as much for the moments where I could see myself as for the moments I knew I would never be able to understand.”
“Freedom House is a deeply-felt inventory of our present catastrophes: anti-blackness, climate change, trans antagonism, state violence, organized abandonment, etc. At the same time, Freedom House is an insistence on and a yearning toward a form of life that exceeds these terms, life as sensuality, as healing, as the absence of threat, as room enough. A formally inventive, witty yet earnest, straight-talking yet sly poet, KB Brookins here wields every tool at their disposal — the “masters’ tools” and the tools of their own making — to craft a dwelling space for the fullness of Black, trans, queer life to manifest.”
- Cameron Awkward-Rich, author of Sympathetic Little Monster and Dispatch
“Unfolding in four parts titled after areas of a house, these stunning poems of Brookins transport readers to 2029, to the gynecologist, and to the moon. Delving into desire, gender identity, loss, and violence, this book absorbed my attention.”
- BookRiot
“KB Brookins is a true powerhouse in their forthcoming debut full-length poetry collection.”
“As politically and socially focused and nuanced as it is, Freedom House is an exploration of the self. Its speaker is confident, bold, and blunt, and the collection stands as a beacon to those in marginalized communities needing inspiration to find their voices.”
"[KB] takes you through intimate moments of their gender transition and weaves in musical references, keeping readers engaged and surprised with every turn of a page.”
“Brilliant. Unapologetic. Fire. This book will leave burn marks on your fingers and heart, and it will be so worth it.”
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* I know a large number of people still use Amazon, Kindle, and Goodreads, so I have them listed here, but I’d REALLY love it if you could avoid using these products. They exploit their workers, invade customers’ privacy, pollute the earth, dodge taxes, and their founder/part owner could solve world hunger among other problems with his money but chooses not to. Doesn’t that suck? Many alternatives exist for these products, and I have some listed on this page. Thank you! -KB