Workshop: Building Your Platform as a Writer with KB Brookins

Description: So you're a writer, congrats! When you hear "platform" or "brand", what comes to mind? Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve got a book deal and are ready to take your work to the next level, building an author platform is a necessary tool in the business of publishing creative writing. In this 3-hour workshop, you'll learn the components of an author platform, what building an online (and IRL!) presence as an author can do for you, and start doing some of the tasks necessary for building your author platform in real-time.   

Topics in this workshop include:

• crafting a bio
• social media tips & tricks
• website
• press kit
• to newsletter or not
• submissions 101
• finding the right venues for your work
• securing the bag, or how to get booked for a show
• horizontal networking

*Registration is now CLOSED* 

Deadline to register: September 13th

Max Participants: 10

Cost: This workshop is provided for free with support from our donors. Donations are appreciated.

Note: Registration does not guarantee attendance. 10 attendees will be selected by drawing and notified by 9/15/23.

KB Brookins is a Black, queer, and trans writer, cultural worker, and artist from Texas. They authored How to Identify Yourself with a Wound (Kallisto Gaia Press 2022), a chapbook that won the Saguaro Poetry Prize and an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book in Literature; Freedom House (Deep Vellum 2023), a poetry collection recommended by Vogue and Autostraddle among others; and Pretty (Alfred A. Knopf 2024), their forthcoming memoir. KB’s writing is published in Poets.org, Teen Vogue, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. They are a 2023 National Endowment of the Arts fellow. Follow them online at @earthtokb.

Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization established to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. TORCH has featured work by Colleen J. McElroy, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats.