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How to Identify Yourself with a Wound
Award-winning collection of poems by poet and change-maker, KB
“The poems in How to Identify Yourself with a Wound pull no punches. Raw honesty paired with concise language inhabit and fully embody a life shaped by the intersection of race, class, sexuality, and gender. This is my favorite kind of poetry, necessary and urgent, revealing and saving and healing and re-creating both poet and reader.” - ire’ne laura silva, author of CUICACALLI/House of Song, 2021 Saguaro poetry prize judge
"The powerful lines, the no-holds-barred voice, and risk-taking candor of these dynamic debut poems make the reader hungry for a whole volume." -Cyrus Cassells, 2021 Poet Laureate of Texas
“Readers can expect to witness the origins of an audacious and empowered advocate whose lyric and inquisitiveness bodes well for the future of poetry." -Faylita Hicks, author of HOODWITCH
“Read this book when you need a good cry, or a knowing look across the room: when you need to be reminded of what tethers you to yourself.” - Ariana Brown, author of We Are Owed.
“The poems in How to Identify Yourself with a Wound pull no punches. Raw honesty paired with concise language inhabit and fully embody a life shaped by the intersection of race, class, sexuality, and gender. This is my favorite kind of poetry, necessary and urgent, revealing and saving and healing and re-creating both poet and reader.” - ire’ne laura silva, author of CUICACALLI/House of Song, 2021 Saguaro poetry prize judge
"The powerful lines, the no-holds-barred voice, and risk-taking candor of these dynamic debut poems make the reader hungry for a whole volume." -Cyrus Cassells, 2021 Poet Laureate of Texas
“Readers can expect to witness the origins of an audacious and empowered advocate whose lyric and inquisitiveness bodes well for the future of poetry." -Faylita Hicks, author of HOODWITCH
“Read this book when you need a good cry, or a knowing look across the room: when you need to be reminded of what tethers you to yourself.” - Ariana Brown, author of We Are Owed.
52 pages, Paperback
First published January 18, 2022
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216 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 7, 2021
wonderful author — a must read!
January 2, 2022
"To Identify with a Wound" is a musical collection if anything. The flow throughout this book has the ability to submerge you into the stories of love, desire, sex, race, family conflict and all round self-discovery. KB plays with the magic of sound throughout this collection, if you pay close attention.
"Greetings from Fort Worth, Texas", feels like head bobbing on the balcony overlooking your hood and it feels like they have taken you on a perfect tour of an imperfect home. Most every piece has a longing to love the same place that built you and broke you down, a search for balance, to respect a home despite its flaws. Whether that be to try to love Fort Worth, a forgotten gift of imperialism, which as a black and/or queer person seems like a chore, or to love your first home, your own mother, who you aren't 100% sure loves you anymore or ever at all.
"You'll never know what your Mother Went Through" shows this contrast, this struggle, beautifully and I love every line of it; it is one of my absolute favorites. If you want to find words to heal your inner child, to put imagery and make painful, heart-wrenching and hopeful music of your trauma, KB provides this opportunity to bask in it all, to see yourself with scars and still love it. "I almost met up with you...to exchange traumas like cicadas exchange their bodies with the wind" is a masterful line that chirps of KB's playfulness with words and accurate awareness of some parts of individual and universal existence. This book reads as an honest look into the parental and personal, simply human experiences that the homes of persons of colour keep trapped behind layers of crippling denial and silence for generations.
KB is writing the stories we never knew we could tell and I can't wait for the world to share in this experience.
"Greetings from Fort Worth, Texas", feels like head bobbing on the balcony overlooking your hood and it feels like they have taken you on a perfect tour of an imperfect home. Most every piece has a longing to love the same place that built you and broke you down, a search for balance, to respect a home despite its flaws. Whether that be to try to love Fort Worth, a forgotten gift of imperialism, which as a black and/or queer person seems like a chore, or to love your first home, your own mother, who you aren't 100% sure loves you anymore or ever at all.
"You'll never know what your Mother Went Through" shows this contrast, this struggle, beautifully and I love every line of it; it is one of my absolute favorites. If you want to find words to heal your inner child, to put imagery and make painful, heart-wrenching and hopeful music of your trauma, KB provides this opportunity to bask in it all, to see yourself with scars and still love it. "I almost met up with you...to exchange traumas like cicadas exchange their bodies with the wind" is a masterful line that chirps of KB's playfulness with words and accurate awareness of some parts of individual and universal existence. This book reads as an honest look into the parental and personal, simply human experiences that the homes of persons of colour keep trapped behind layers of crippling denial and silence for generations.
KB is writing the stories we never knew we could tell and I can't wait for the world to share in this experience.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 11, 2021
I LOVE a good poetry collection and this was, in all honesty, one of the best I’ve read all year. KB’s flow is authentic and so immersive. The chapbook covers so many topics (gender, trans identity, first love, sex, race, parent-child relationships etc.) with a self-awareness that’s startling and poignant all at once.
My absolute favourites were “Red Pumps”, “Two truths and a lie”, “you’ll never know what your mother went through” and lastly “I’ll Miss The Women’s Restroom” which had me sobbing like a baby 🥲
Here’s a quote that stood out to me from “Notes on sexual experiment”:
“Sexuality feels a college friend that moved away. When you see them it’s all love, but they’re often not here.”
What an incredible collection. KB is one to watch 😍
My absolute favourites were “Red Pumps”, “Two truths and a lie”, “you’ll never know what your mother went through” and lastly “I’ll Miss The Women’s Restroom” which had me sobbing like a baby 🥲
Here’s a quote that stood out to me from “Notes on sexual experiment”:
“Sexuality feels a college friend that moved away. When you see them it’s all love, but they’re often not here.”
What an incredible collection. KB is one to watch 😍
September 7, 2021
This poetry collection took my breath away. KB's work is absolutely necessary reading for us all: an unabashed, brutal, and beautiful investigation of sites of harm and growth, of people and place, and overall, of love --- the poems within showcase what it means to to care, and to care deeply. There is so much happening in this collection, and I only want more of the music, movement, and self-inquiry that takes place! I recommend everyone read this ASAP and stay alert to any and all work from this phenomenal poet.
October 15, 2021
This beautiful collection of poetry is both deeply personal and yet somehow universal. As soon as you start reading you’re able to feel the pulse and rhythm of the words. Every detail, to the spacing and landscape of each poem, feels appropriate for what is written. KB takes you on their personal journey of love, loss, losing attachments, loneliness and simple joys. This collection is both important and profound, and it’s also a stunning read.
April 30, 2022
It’s hard to summarize poetry. It’s more about how it makes you feel.
This how I felt when I read How to Identify Yourself With a Wound: heartbroken, wounded, hopeful, inspired.
KB’s poems are a delight to read! If you want to read amazing poetry, do yourself a favor and get a copy!
This how I felt when I read How to Identify Yourself With a Wound: heartbroken, wounded, hopeful, inspired.
KB’s poems are a delight to read! If you want to read amazing poetry, do yourself a favor and get a copy!
January 5, 2022
A stunning collection that captures the beauty, pain, and expansiveness of a Black queer experience. Rooted in Texa, KB's poems take you there and then some. I can't wait to see what they do next.
March 28, 2022
KB is such a beautiful poet. Loved this collection!
July 23, 2025
“They remind me that everything in the world has been touched & every surface has dependence on something using it…Lonely is a capitalist concept.”
March 23, 2022
3 stars
A lot of these poems were a little too close to feeling like spoken word poetry for me to fully appreciate them (I know I have mentioned many times that spoken word is just not my bag, but that is obviously a personal problem, not this poet's), but there were plenty of interesting lines and poems to make this collection a worthwhile read. I just wanted it to be a little more cohesive, perhaps with more of the recurring imagery that KB dabbles with at times. The standout poem for me was "Alexa, Play Oh My God by Ida Maria," which had this line that really got me: "Because I've said I love you/ out of scarcity." I also loved the image about (not) being a fixture in a room. It's always nice to read poems from a (somewhat) local poet and recognize place names and references. Like HEB! More poems involving HEB, please.
A lot of these poems were a little too close to feeling like spoken word poetry for me to fully appreciate them (I know I have mentioned many times that spoken word is just not my bag, but that is obviously a personal problem, not this poet's), but there were plenty of interesting lines and poems to make this collection a worthwhile read. I just wanted it to be a little more cohesive, perhaps with more of the recurring imagery that KB dabbles with at times. The standout poem for me was "Alexa, Play Oh My God by Ida Maria," which had this line that really got me: "Because I've said I love you/ out of scarcity." I also loved the image about (not) being a fixture in a room. It's always nice to read poems from a (somewhat) local poet and recognize place names and references. Like HEB! More poems involving HEB, please.
February 20, 2022
Powerful. Poignant. KB seems to reflect on a time both past and present, threading the needle of trauma, memory, and the chaos that is life through words that strip, prod, and lash at the skin. Merging at the point of several intersections, there’s a certain relatability to KB’s words that feel both familiar and comforting. Perhaps it’s the way that the reader can also feel seen in the work, in the words, in the pauses and breaths that drip from the lips of the page. This is definitely a book to have on your bookshelf and KB is definitely a writer to follow.
November 1, 2021
How to Identify Yourself with a Wound is raw, honest, brave, heart-rending, and a beautiful collection of hope. KB unearths the every day taxing, anxiety-inducing, and even traumatic moments that torture countless but few people notice or stop to consider and addresses such with poetic wonder.
I certainly can't think of a favorite poem, just appreciative of the experience that was reading this strong collection of poetry.
I certainly can't think of a favorite poem, just appreciative of the experience that was reading this strong collection of poetry.
February 25, 2022
I really appreciate this chapbook and how eye-opening it was. I love the way KB goes about sharing their experiences and I really thank them for sharing in general as a majority of the topics seem very personal. As someone who is starting to think more about how they identify, there were many parts that sparked me to do some self-reflecting.
February 22, 2022
Goosebumps throughout the entire read. KB is PHENOMENAL — I will be thinking/talking about this one for a while. Wow.
August 20, 2022
I didn't really care for this one. The self-importance of the author was a turn-off.
August 30, 2022
A fucking star at only the beginning of their ascent
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews