{"product_id":"pretty-a-memoir-9780593537145","title":"Pretty: A Memoir","description":"\u003cb\u003eBy a prize-winning, young Black trans writer of outsized talent, a fierce and disciplined memoir about queerness, masculinity, and race.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEven as it shines light on the beauty and toxicity of Black masculinity from a transgender perspective--the tropes, the presumptions--\u003ci\u003ePretty \u003c\/i\u003eis as much a powerful and tender love letter as it is a call for change. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"I should be able to define myself, but I am not. Not by any governmental or cultural body,\" Brookins writes. \"Every day, I negotiate the space between who I am, how I'm perceived, and what I need to unlearn. People have assumed things about me, and I can't change that. Every day, I am assumed to be a Black American man, though my ID says 'female, ' and my heart says neither of the sort. What does it mean--to be a girl-turned-man when you're something else entirely?\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eInformed by KB Brookins's personal experiences growing up in Texas, those of other Black transgender masculine people, Black queer studies, and cultural criticism, \u003ci\u003ePretty \u003c\/i\u003eis concerned with the marginalization suffered by a unique American constituency--whose condition is a world apart from that of cisgender, non-Black, and non-masculine people. Here is a memoir (a bildungsroman of sorts) about coming to terms with instantly and always being perceived as \"other\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKB BROOKINS is a Black, queer, and trans writer and cultural worker from Texas. They are the author of \u003ci\u003eFreedom House \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eHow to Identify Yourself with a Wound. \u003c\/i\u003eBrookins has poems, essays, and installation art published in\u003ci\u003e Academy of American Poets, Teen Vogue, Poetry \u003c\/i\u003eMagazine\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003ePrizer Arts \u0026amp; Letters, \u003ci\u003eOkayplayer\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePoetry Society of America, Autostraddle, \u003c\/i\u003eand other venues. They have earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, Equality Texas, and others. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eearthtokb.com\u003cbr\u003eOn social media, @earthtokb\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Knopf Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50576791961874,"sku":"9780593537145","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_82c2bb3b-b52a-442c-af78-4b51e1b40f2a.jpg?v=1731994170","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/pretty-a-memoir-9780593537145","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}