KB Brookins is a Black, queer, and trans writer, educator, and cultural worker from Texas. Their writing is in HuffPost, Teen Vogue, Oxford American, Academy of American Poets, Poetry Society of America, and elsewhere. KB’s poetry chapbook How To Identify Yourself with a Wound (2022) won the Saguaro Poetry Prize, a Writer’s League of Texas Discovery Prize, and a Stonewall Honor Book Award. Their poetry collection Freedom House (2023), described as “urgent and timely” by Vogue, won the American Library Association Barbara Gittings Literature Award and the Texas Institute of Letters Award for the Best First Book of Poetry. Freedom House was named a Best Book of 2023 by multiple publications. KB adapted Freedom House into a solo art exhibit, displayed at various museums. Their debut memoir Pretty (2024) won the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Dorothy Allison/Felice Picano Emerging Writer Award.

KB’s background in nonprofit management, student affairs, and K-12 teaching informs their cultural work. They helped found and lead two nonprofits to advance LGBTQIA+ justice and nurture/amplify marginalized artists in Central Texas. For two years, KB was the Program Coordinator of the Gender and Sexuality Center at the University of Texas at Austin, where they founded the Black Queer & Trans Collective and co-led the President’s LGBTQIA+ Committee. KB served as Managing Editor for the benefit anthologies Winter Storm Project, Do You Want a Revolution, and Watch Dogs. They also facilitated a youth poetry film workshop on policing in Central Texas schools. KB hosted a variety show to raise funds for gender affirming healthcare. From 2022-25, they successfully founded the city of Austin’s adult poet laureate program. 

KB has earned fellowships and residencies from National Endowment of the Arts, Sewanee Writers Conference, Tin House, Lambda Literary, Civil Rights Corps, and elsewhere. Their poem “Good Grief” won the Academy of American Poets 2022 Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize. KB has performed with The Moth, Texas Book Festival, and many other institutions. They starred in an award-winning short documentary titled Earth To KB, which screened at 15 film festivals internationally. KB’s TV pilot, Church Girl, placed in the Austin Film Festival and Writers X Writers 2024 Competitions. 

KB received their MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at Austin’s New Writers Project. Currently, KB is an ACLU of Texas Artist-in-Residence, a City of Austin LGBTQ Quality of Life Commissioner, and a Sundress Publications Board of Directors member. In their free time, they enjoy watching TV, throwing a lil sumn’ on the grill, and sending memes to their spouse. Follow KB on Instagram, Tiktok, Bluesky, and Substack at @earthtokb.