Crystal Wilkinson

Crystal E. Wilkinson is an African-American feminist writer from Kentucky, and proponent of the Affrilachian Poet movement.

She is the winner of a 2022 NAACP Image Award, a 2020 winner of the USA Fellow of Creative Writing, and a 2021 O. Henry Prize winner.

She teaches at the University of Kentucky.

Her work has primarily been in involving the stories of Black women and communities in the Appalachian and rural Southern canon.

She was appointed Poet Laureate of Kentucky 2021.

Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Crystal Wilkinson was brought to her grandparents' farm in Indian Creek, Kentucky (about three miles east of Middleburg, Kentucky), when she was six weeks old.

They were the only African-American family in the area.

Like many farmers in Appalachia, Silas Wilkinson grew cash crops of tobacco and corn and produced sorghum molasses; and, given the few jobs available for African-American women in eastern Kentucky, Christine Wilkinson cleaned and cooked in the homes of the local schoolteachers of Casey County.

Wilkinson wrote that she "lived an enchanted childhood" and that her grandparents "gave me the freedom to explore the countryside and to write, to dream, to discover."

She wrote about her childhood and her upbringing in her award-winning book, Blackberries, Blackberries:

Wilkinson attended Eastern Kentucky University in nearby Richmond, Kentucky and graduated with a B.A. in Journalism in 1985.

In 1997, Wilkinson became the Assistant Director for the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, Kentucky, where she taught short courses and implemented many different programs and activities for Kentucky's literary arts scene.

From 1997 to 2001 and again in 2008, she taught high school juniors and seniors who were juried into the creative writing discipline for the Governor's School for the Arts (Kentucky).

She also served as chair of the creative writing department from 1997 to 2001.

In 2000, Wilkinson published her first volume, the short-story collection Blackberries, Blackberries (The Toby Press, 2000), which would go on to receive the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature.

She has taught creative writing at Eastern Kentucky University (2002–2003), Indiana University-Bloomington (2004–2007), and at Morehead State University (2007–2013).

In 2003, she earned her Master of Fine Arts degree for Creative Writing from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky.

Early in her career Wilkinson was a public information officer and community relations manager for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, editing their quarterly environmental newsletter and handling media relations for special projects.

She also began volunteering her time to public service in Lexington, most notably the Roots and Heritage Festival, helping with publicity and coordinating the literary readings.

During this time, Wilkinson joined other Kentucky African-American writers (including Kelly Norman Ellis, Ricardo Nazario y Colon, Mitchell L. H. Douglas, and Daundra Scisney-Givens) at the Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Center at the University of Kentucky where Frank X Walker was the assistant director.

The group, later called The Affrilachian Poets, was mentored by the poet Nikky Finney who was teaching then at the University of Kentucky.

In the spring of 2004, she served as the Writer-in-Residence for the Appalachian College Association, conducting advanced creative writing classes and one-on-one instruction for undergraduate writing students at Cumberland College, Lindsey Wilson College and Berea College.

In 2006, Wilkinson was the Guest Fiction Editor and featured writer for Nantahala Review.

Her short fiction piece "Holler", published in Slice Literary Magazine (Spring/Summer 2010), was nominated for the 2010 Pushcart Prize.

They were also co-founders and owners of The Wild Fig Books and Coffee in Lexington, Ky from 2011 until 2018.

Wilkinson has presented many workshops and given readings in the U.S., including:

Wilkinson was appointed Poet Laureate of Kentucky in 2021.

She is the first Black woman appointed to that position.

Wilkinson is featured in several television shows:

Wilkinson is the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the 2016 Ernest Gaines Fellowship for Literary Excellence and the Sallie Bingham Award from the Kentucky Foundation for Women for the promotion of activism and feminist artist expression.

As of 2020, Wilkinson is an associate professor at the University of Kentucky in the Department of English, the Program in African American and Africana Studies.

She also works with the UK Appalachian Center and the Gaines Center for the Humanities at the University of Kentucky.

She currently conducts research in "Creative Writing, Fiction, The Short Story Cycle, Black Culture in Appalachia, Mental Illness in Literature, [and] Women and the Black Rural Landscape".

She and her partner, the artist and poet, Ronald Davis (upfromsumdirt), are the founders and editors of the briefly published Mythium: A Journal of Contemporary Literature, a journal that celebrated writers of color and other cultural voices.

Crystal Wilkinson has also gained recognition from the United States Artists in being awarded a position as a 2020 USA Fellow.