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 2022 poetry chapbook How To Identify Yourself with a Wound ^[2] and the 2023 poetry collection Freedom House.^[3]

Brookins was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas.^[4] They first became interested in poetry in 7th grade after a teacher introduced them to the genre.^[5] They started writing their own poetry in high school.^[6]

Brookins attended Texas Christian University and graduated in 2017.^[7]

Brookins received the 2022 Treehouse Climate Action Prize from the Academy of American Poets for their poem "Good Grief".^[8] Their poetry chapbook How To Identify Yourself with a Wound won the Saguaro Poetry Prize and a Writer's League of Texas Discovery Prize.^[9][10] It was also selected as a 2023 Stonewall Honor Book Award through the American Library Association. ^[11] Vogue called their writing style "urgent and timely while still holding space for the possibility of a life lived on one’s own terms."^[12]

Brookins' book Freedom House explores themes of race, transgender identity, and gentrification among others.^[13] In a review, Southern Review of Books called it "an unapologetic, forward-dreaming manifesto for a better, shared future."^[14] Karla J. Strand of Ms. included it in "the best poetry of the last year".^[15]Freedom House won the 2024 Stonewall Book Award Barbara Gittings Literature Award and an award with the Texas Institute of Letters.^[16] Freedom House was named a best book of 2023 by Autostraddle and Chicago Review of Books.^[17][18][19]

Brookins worked as a Program Coordinator at The University of Texas at Austin’s Gender and Sexuality Center.^[20][21] Brookins founded two nonprofit organizations in Austin, Texas: Interfaces ^[22][23] and Embrace Austin.^[24] 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."^[25]

Brookins is the subject of a documentary that premieres at the 2024 BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival.^[26] Brookins turned their book Freedom House into an art exhibit, which premiered in Austin, Texas in April 2024.^[27]

• 2018 Lambda Literary Foundation Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellow (Poetry)^[47]
• 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow (Poetry) ^[48]
• 2022 Academy of American Poets Treehouse Climate Action Prize Recipient ^[49][8]
• 2022 Western Illinois University Fred Ewing Case and Lola Case Writer-in-Residence^[50]
• 2022 Writer's League of Texas Discovery Prizer Winner - Poetry^[10]
• 2022-23 Civil Rights Corps Poet in Residence^[51]
• 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow^[52]
• 2023 Stonewall Book Award Honor Book^[53]
• 2023 Texas Institute of Letters Award^[16]
• 2024 Stonewall Book Award Barbara Gittings Literature Award for Poetry^[17]

Brookins moved to Austin, TX in 2018.^[2] Brookins identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.^[54] They currently are a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.^[55]