KB Brookins (they/them) is a Black, queer, and trans writer, educator, and cultural worker from Texas. Their writing is in Teen Vogue, HuffPost, 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. They adapted Freedom House into a solo art exhibit, displayed at various museums. KB’s debut memoir Pretty (2024) is a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Nonfiction. It also 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 student affairs, editing, programming, and organizing informs their cultural work. They helped found and lead two nonprofits to nurture and amplify marginalized artists in Central Texas and LGBTQIA+ Austinites. 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 hosted a variety show that raised $1200+ for gender affirming care. They successfully founded the city of Austin’s adult poet laureate program and, as a city of Austin LGBTQ Quality of Life Commissioner, co-created and distributed 2,000+ copies of the Austin Trans Resource Guide. Currently, KB runs a video series and newsletter called Trans News That Doesn’t Suck that has amassed over 1,300 subscribers and 200,000 views across social media platforms.

KB has earned fellowships and residencies from National Endowment of the Arts, Sewanee Writers Conference, Tin House, Lambda Literary, Ragdale, Civil Rights Corps, and elsewhere. They received their MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Texas at Austin’s New Writers Project. KB’s poem “Good Grief” won the Academy of American Poets 2022 Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize. 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. 

Currently, KB is an ACLU of Texas Artist-in-Residence and a Black Mountain Institute Shearing Fellow at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 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, Substack, and Bluesky at @earthtokb.