Can’t You! Feel A! Brand New Day!
A short newsletter answering an impossible question.
Friends, Foes, & Woes,
Hey hey! This is your neighborhood dreamboat, KB. To new subscribers: I’m so happy you’re here. To oldies: you, like the movie The Wiz, will always be new to me <3
Anyway, if you don’t already know: my debut memoir, PRETTY, is officially published as of today. Because so many people have been asking me “how does it feel?”, I’m gonna spend this (short! I promise!) newsletter telling you a story about why that is impossible to answer.
I took my first shot of testosterone in December 2020; I waited so many years to take this necessary step of my transition because I was scared of what my family would think, whether or not I’d “earned” the label of being trans (due to misconceptions around what it means to be nonbinary). & then, once my voice started dropping octaves & I grew facial hair, I was exposed to a level of violence due to being seen as a “Black man” that I was not prepared for, so I started searching for books.
I wanted to find something that would soothe me — something that made this dilemma of going from a Black girlhood to a Black manhood, two experiences I didn’t ask for but that I had to inherit — make sense. I found nothing. The media (including the literary industry) has a habit of either shutting trans people out, or only propping up our white community members. So I looked back on my life, at the moments where I failed and succeeded to make gender my own. I lost sleep, dug deep into Texas history, had intense but necessary conversations with loved ones, & learned a whole damn genre of writing lol.
I clawed my way through a volatile industry & -- due to some persistence, some allies, & a lot of delusion (lol) -- I made this google doc, then PDF, then advance copy of prose and poems named "Pretty" into a book. 💛✨
Despite me being a writer — the profession known for having “the right words” — it’s hard to know what to say to celebrate the book that almost broke me. For now, all I can say is thanks. Thank you to my fearless agent, Annie Dewitt, & to my publisher, Alfred A. Knopf for giving me the chance to write my people, my state, myself, into history. If you’d like to witness a messy story of growing up Black and trans in Texas, a story of making one's own masculinity, a story of being yourself despite what the world around you tells you you “should” be, click this link.
Aaaand that’s the newsletter. I told you it’d be short, right? Here are 3 things you can do to celebrate PRETTY:
Buy a copy! it's available in hardcover, ebook, & audiobook: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/724994/pretty-by-kb-brookins/
Recommend PRETTY to your friends, colleagues, libraries, & indie bookstores.
Join me at one of my tour stops:
The things in red are things I’ve added since we last spoke :) RSVP to any of these stops here: https://earthtokb.com/upcomingevents.
Donate to Operation Olive Branch.
I hope this email finds you in the midst of answering the impossible questions and doing the impossible things. I’m grateful to have you witnessing me. Let’s continue wishing for a world where telling our stories and being ourselves doesn’t feel impossible. Till next time.
Love, Peace, & Chicken Grease,
KB
Happy memoir release day!!!
Congratulations KB!! I first remember hearing your work at an offsite AWP reading in San Antonio. I hope to make it out to Skylight in June. Sending hella love!!