Ya'll... unreal news just dropped😭❤️
thank you to for selecting me as a 2023 Creative Writing Fellow in Poetry. check out bios & statements from our amazing cohort here: arts.gov/impact/literar
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KB Brookins
@earthtokb
they/them | 2023 fellow | author of books w/ ('22), ('23) & ('24) | in-res | rep:
KB Brookins’s Tweets
good morning! did u know that yesterday 450+ Texans showed up to the Texas Capitol to testify against HB1686, an anti-trans healthcare bill, waited till misnight to do so, & were denied that right? watch this👇🏽
so ………… I have some news
why does every creative writing program not have a semester-long business of writing class (making a website, putting together ish to submit, pitching, contract negotiations, etc). also, why do I not teach it🧐
WHY DID I JUST GET 3 POEMS ACCEPTED BY AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW
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taking a class w/ Roger Reeves rn & the other day he said a prose poem is a poem w/ an infinite line ….….. I cannot stop thinking about this
learned recently that Miyazaki wrote poems to his staff to convey the atmosphere, characters, settings, and themes of princess mononoke… this proves everything
5 years ago, I wrote a list of goals, one of them being "get into ". today, after years of trying & refining my craft/myself, I can finally cross the last goal left on that list off ❤️😭❤️
blessed to have 4 new poems in the March issue of POETRY. read 1 here:
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elated to announce that my chapbook HOW TO IDENTIFY YOURSELF WITH A WOUND won the 2020 Saguaro Poetry Prize. I’s got a book coming out w/ early 2022 y’all.🥺
just did a guest lecture w/ an art class & it's true: poetry SHOULD be in art departments instead
so am I just gonna apply to stuff for the rest of my life
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reminder that the relationship between a writer & a magazine is a symbiotic one. it is a gift to be published but it is also a gift for them to publish YOU.
(1/9)
since I just accepted the offer fr..... I guess I can now say that this is happening
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🎊FREEDOM HOUSE is officially out today🎊
so damn happy that my Black ass, trans ass debut full-length poetry book is here (😭📚🫶🏾)! if we haven’t met yet, hello👋🏾learn more ab my book in this video. if u like what u hear, buy a copy 👉🏾store.deepvellum.org/products/freed
🚨COVER REVEAL🚨
So excited to share the cover of my debut full-length poetry book! Cover design by Zoe Norvell. PREORDER FREEDOM HOUSE HERE: store.deepvellum.org/products/freed
First 100 preorders will receive a signed copy! Spread the word please! #FreedomHouseBook
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also has anyone clocked how queer & trans the NEA list is? the transexuals are transexing !!! the gays are winning (while both groups are being attacked by legislation & weird cultural trends, but) !!!
poets: when someone asks you “what is poetry”, what is your answer? my current one is “an exploration of the possibilities of language and sound”. I’m curious about others’.
unpopular opinion but moving AWP away from kansas city feels a lot like the shit y'all were talking when AWP was in Texas in 2020 & I don't like it.
love this & hate that white disabled folks were foaming at the mouth bc she didn't respond in *checks notes* under 72 hours
ALSO y'all hold Black women & lizzo specifically to a ridiculously high standard that y'all don't hold anyone else in entertainment to but whatever
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the advice "don't write a memoir before you're 30" didn't take into account that some of us watched 9/11 happen on TV one random day in 1st grade
things I learned at AWP:
talking for hours in a row (even when it’s fun!) drains me
the lit world is still too white
when ppl think you’re famous they forget u have physical/mental boundaries
anyone who says poetry is dead doesn’t know poets; I pity those fools
nobody told me that teaching undergrads would be so second-hand streesful. they be like “hey I just got hit by a bus & it doesn’t help that I haven’t slept in days haha anyway I’ll be 10 minutes late tomorrow” 😵💫
cat’s out the bag…🥹♥️
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elated to debut the gawgeous cover for my debut chapbook❤️🔥📚much thanks to for the design & for trusting in my vision.
you can also PREORDER IT FOR $10 HERE: kallistogaiapress.org/product/how-to
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announcing something pretty cool later today
woke up yesterday a partner. but today, I woke up something else entirely.
love u to the moon & ❤️we's finacé's now!
BABES !!! my forthcoming collection was named a best new poetry collection to read/preorder in !!!🤯
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instead, we should be working together to pressure to put out a statement in support of trans people, ensure that conference attendees will be safe (state politics doesn't always translate to city culture!), & patronizing trans writers/presses/etc while we're in town!
get in loser we’re reading frank: sonnets under the minnesota sunset
signing in simply to say today makes 60 days sober & I am signing back out. thx✨
me, seconds after reading a pro-abortion poem on a Texas NPR station:
it’s wild to me that a poetry book can be pulitzer prize winning & sell like… a couple thousand copies. ofc grateful for those who buy & sell poetry but why is the circulation of our books so damn low🤨
welp, new fear dropped: my syllabus getting posted on the internet & dissected by ppl who will never take the class 🫥
MY FIRST NOMINATION FOR A PUSHCART OMG I'M SCREAMING?
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beestung is thrilled to announce our 2022 @PushcartPrize nominees!
Congratulations to Jason B. Crawford, Stephanie Kaylor, Tori Ashley Matos, jonah wu, Dani Putney, and KB!
Read their work below, and look out for more to come on the 20th!
AWP24 panel ideas:
-trans poetics in the age of US anti-transness
-contemporary relevance of the epic
-poetry2prose pipeline: bringing poetic sensibilities to cnf, fiction & screenwriting
-artivism: making your art useful to political movements
comment if interested🥲
so anyway I performed at an event today that required masking, had 3 HEPA filters & free masks/hand sanitizer for folks who needed some, & mic covers. I appreciate ppl who don’t treat me & other COVID conscious folks like we’re asking for too much
new absurdity dropped: the current poet laureate of Texas has his booked banned in parts of Texas
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Well, it happened - I have been informed, my book Why I Am Like Tequila is banned in schools in the Texas Pan Handle.
#TXPL23
#BannedBooks
I am a poet who regularly reads poetry & 10/10 can confirm. lol
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Poems be feeling like inside jokes. Wtf are you talking about?
🚨stop scrolling🚨
The Texas Legislature just declared all-out war on the LGBTQ+ community. Tomorrow, the Senate will hear two bills aimed to outlaw drag performers. Monday, a house hearing seeking to ban life-saving healthcare has been scheduled. just a few minutes ago (1/6)
I wish ppl would ask the really easy question of “am I the target audience” before trashing shit on goodreads/amazon/storygraph.
folk be white as walls talmbout “2/5 stars. I just couldn’t connect w/ the content in FOR THE NIGGAS: poems” 😐😐😐
I feel like I avoid talking about this the way that rich kids avoid talking about their trust fund. 😭
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my problem is that I write one poem then be like “do I send to New Yorker or Paris Review🤔” then not even like it the next day. 😂
‼️fun fact my memoir on Black transmasculinity coming out next yr was rejected w/o interview by every non-black editor, one citing not being able to get the “cultural references”. 🤔 every essay I’ve had accepted that didn’t make it to publication was on being Black & trans. 🤔🤔
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In the wake of efforts toward trans eradication, I'm thinking about how few trans writers are hired at universities, receive book awards, how few are represented in magazines, how extraordinary trans people have to be just to get published in this "inclusive" industry
when a writer gets on your damn nerves but u read something they wrote & gotta admit that they ate that
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it is my belief that all poets should try essay-writing at least once. it’s money being left on the table for starters (!!), & the essay is the 2nd loosest genre (behind poetry, ofc) that one can write in.
there are rules, but they are mostly vibes! come to the dark side pls!
transmasculine is a term I feel so so about cause I guess I transitioned to a more masculine presentation in the eyes of cis people but I’ve always been masc… so
in 2019 I decided to take this poeting thing seriously & said “man, I’ll prolly fuck around & get a book w/ ” at Dallas’ yearly lit festival.
& last week I signed a contract that says my debut full-length poetry collection FREEDOM HOUSE is being published in 2023.🥲
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bursting at the seams to share some news but imma shut up
anyway I don’t like the New York Times, the academizing of poetry IS bad/should be critiqued, and the poetry I know & love (socialist queer POC genderf*ck poetry) is alive & well & needs to be marketed & funded better 🙏🏽
poets: can we please all agree to record audiobooks for our books? I’d like to listen to yr poems while I’m on commutes & doing tasks around the house; also, it helps w/ accessibility😅
🧵incoming: long & sappy thread 🧵
sometimes I forget that there was a “before”. me before two lines were on my chest, me before my chest was a flat surface I decorated with tattoos. despite what my social media pics might tell u, there was a time before I was comfy
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besides constantly reading/applying what you read in your writing, the only other advice I could give someone for a "writing career" is to a) get some pr/marketing skills & b) be a good person. I'm serious
🥹♥️🥹my poem w/ is out!
this one is so important to me, & was birthed in the aftermath of a climate disaster that left so many Texans w/o water & heat for days. please read it here, & if u like it, take some of the actions I suggest below:
found out I got 2nd place for a poetry prize I submitted to (& thought they lost my submission for). pretty cool🥲
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the larger literary community is so partial to northern states & are so defeatist about shit like it's not trans people in KC that could use our dollars/support in numbers!
did a photoshoot to recreate my book's cover/get some images for my EP & the photographer uh ...... snapped
poets: please learn from my mistake & make yourself an events rider. if you have boundaries re: COVID-19, travel, lodging, transportation, hospitality, etc, write them all out into a document & tack that onto all of your events contracts!
poetry is not as popular as other genres because it is harder to read. I literally don’t think there is another reason
got my award notice today. it now feels really real 😭😭😭❤️✨‼️
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Ya'll... unreal news just dropped
thank you to @NEAarts for selecting me as a 2023 Creative Writing Fellow in Poetry. check out bios & statements from our amazing cohort here: arts.gov/impact/literar
thank you to @NEAarts for selecting me as a 2023 Creative Writing Fellow in Poetry. check out bios & statements from our amazing cohort here: arts.gov/impact/literar
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being rejected is one thing but getting solicited then rejected is just
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my contributor copies came & look @ the back 😭😭😭😭😭
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5 years ago, I wrote a list of goals, one of them being "get into @poetrymagazine". today, after years of trying & refining my craft/myself, I can finally cross the last goal left on that list off
blessed to have 4 new poems in the March issue of POETRY. read 1 here:
blessed to have 4 new poems in the March issue of POETRY. read 1 here:
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full disclosure my trans ass did an event w/ University of Missouri Kansas City's multicultural center last yr & it was nice. stop this judging a place by its politics mess, as if most state's governor/legislative body represents all the people that live there🫶🏾
Freedom House #WritingPrompts (a thread🧵)
Thrilled to share #free writing prompts based on my forthcoming poetry collection! As the release date gets closer, I'll add prompts to this thread :)
Pre-order: tinyurl.com/KBFreedomHouse
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being the city that hosts AWP is not a small deal. u get eyes on your city's literary/arts/culture scene. taking that opportunity away bc of some shit that is likely not in the literary landscape's control feels wrong! idc!
doing a reading & using my actual book for the first time today🥲
so these days I'm tryna keep 3 books on me at all times (1 poetry, 1 CNF, 1 fiction). here are mine for the next 2 weeks:
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can't believe I'm tweeting this, but I have a piece that is now live with ❤️ if you like band geeks, Black queerness, or the unmistakable magic of Frank Ocean, I think you'll enjoy it.
oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue
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so I haven’t transitioned to masculinity… but I also haven’t transitioned to being a man… I’ve just transitioned to … me! I’m trans, but there’s no binary qualifier after that! lol
to celebrate the NEA, I performed at a slam last night. I do it at least yearly & suggest it to every poet who thinks they’re relevant to the everyday person lol
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🚨 something’s happening in Texas that EVERYBODY needs to be paying attention to🚨
3000 ppl (!) registered their formal opposition to a bill that wld ban trans youth healthcare; 500 ppl signed up to testify against it, yet the state chose to center the 20ish ppl who support it‼️
So amazed my chapbook "How To Identify Yourself With a Wound" is a Stonewall Honor Book & grateful it's touched so many folks since it came out. Many thanks to of :)
It's only up from here! Pre-order "Freedom House", my full-length: Tinyurl.com/KBFreedomHouse
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Congratulations to @earthtokb, published by @gaiapress: HOW TO IDENTIFY YOURSELF WITH A WOUND was named a Stonewall Book Award Barbara Gittings Literature Award Honor! #LibLearnX23 #StonewallAward
so recently a high schooler reached out to me bc her class is doing a living poet project & she picked me & wanted to see if I could talk to her ab my personal experiences & I think it is the coolest thing that's ever happened to me.
yunno, I would love to take a poetry class that is very meter, rhyme, traditional form, old-ass craft focused. I’m feeling too familiar w/ free-verse & the turns in my poems lately. I’d like to learn more rules so I can follow (or break) them in ways that suprise me.
so who's gonna let me teach a class on Black women rappers & music in poetry. syllabus will include Megan Thee Stallion, Gwendolyn Brooks, & Noname for starters!
heyo! I shared some thoughts on the Black church, being trans, and the concept of coming out during the holidays w/ 🥺♥️. pls read it!
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#OpEd: "I have all of this love during the rest of the year, so I don’t feel the need to trouble the temporary interactions I have from November-January." tnvge.co/3BjACQW
reminder to myself & others that everything doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. some of my poems are jokes, quips, fibs; pure innocent fun, if you will! we need that, just like the poems that devastate & etc—
poems? written. lifelong connections? made. books? bought. the very QTBIPOC, very black #thsw owes me nothing!!! I wish I took more pictures, slept thru less craft talks (lol), & had more time. let's all do this again soon 🫶🏾📚
cat’s out the bag! very excited to be following behind the footsteps of , , #RandallHorton & as Poet-In-Residence of . 🎊
I aspire to write poems that are readable by people that are not poets or academics.
they/we are cool & all but like... my target audiences are Black & queer & trans people. that is who I want reading, talking about & sharing my work, & that includes ppl w/o college degrees!
hate this moment we’re living in where journalists use “we have to cover both sides” as an excuse to platform anti-trans misinformation
news thing #3: I'M A EMERGING VOICES FELLOW !!!!
Very much honored & excited to have mentorship as I embark on writing & publishing my WIP, finding an agent & more. I'm especially excited to be a fellow w/ & fam Nefertiti Asanti!
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bursting at the seams to share some news
#HTIYWAW is out officially today. no words, just gratitude!
buy u a copy if u haven’t already here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI♥️🙌🏽
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I don't have all the answers, but I swear being from the non-south makes many of u creative people so uncreative!
babes with ADHD: do u ever open your mouth & just ... freestyle a sentence then realize you've been talking for 10 minutes straight & feel embarassed
added "their poems are published in American Poetry Review, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere" to the bio today
I don't talk about it much cause it is quite painful but I lost my best friend to suicide in 2016. I am just now at the point where I can a) talk/write ab it w/o crying & b) publicize those writings; I'm lucky to say one comes out w/ in a couple months. ❤️
my god FUCK the New York Times
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A campaign against transgender rights has mobilized the Republican Party. How did that happen? Listen to today's episode of The Daily.
nyti.ms/43sE3xM
transitioning to a new name is …. a process. even moreso than a physical transition for me.
I wrote a pretty personal poem about it w/ . I hope u read/listen to it♥️
poetry.onl/read/k-b
writing a book based on my rship w/ my bestfriend who passed in 2016 & happened to come across.... 21 stage plays he wrote. & 1 screenplay. knowing he did this + 3 poetry collections + 4 EP's + an unfinished album in 21 years of life. wow.
writers! it didn’t hit me till recently but like… why are we not putting “self-employed writer & performer” or some variation of that on our resumes lol. in what world is all the things we do for ourselves not work🤔