Crystal Wilkinson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Crystal E. Wilkinson
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| Born |
Hamilton, Ohio, US
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| Occupation | Author |
| Awards | O. Henry Prize (2021) NAACP Image Award (2022) |
Crystal E. Wilkinson is an amazing African-American writer from Kentucky. She is known for her stories about Black women and their communities. She is also a big supporter of the Affrilachian Poet movement. This movement celebrates the voices of Black people in the Appalachian region.
Crystal Wilkinson has won many important awards. These include the 2022 NAACP Image Award and the 2021 O. Henry Prize. She was also named a 2020 USA Fellow for Creative Writing. Today, she teaches writing at the University of Kentucky. In 2021, she became the Poet Laureate of Kentucky. This means she is the official poet of the state!
Contents
Growing Up: Crystal Wilkinson's Early Life
Crystal Wilkinson was born in Hamilton, Ohio. When she was just six weeks old, she moved to her grandparents' farm. This farm was in Indian Creek, Kentucky. Her family was the only African-American family in that area.
Her grandparents were farmers. They grew crops like tobacco and corn. They also made sweet sorghum molasses. Her grandmother, Christine Wilkinson, cleaned and cooked for local teachers. This was because there were not many jobs for Black women in eastern Kentucky.
Crystal Wilkinson remembers her childhood as "enchanted." Her grandparents let her explore the countryside. They encouraged her to write, dream, and discover. She wrote about this time in her book, Blackberries, Blackberries:
"I grew up on a farm in Indian Creek, Kentucky during the seventies. I swam in creeks and roamed the knobs and hills. We had an outhouse and no inside running water. Our house was heated by coal and wood-burning stoves... But it was a place of beauty - trees, green grass and blue sky as far as you could see. I am country."
She also wrote that many Black country folks live in small towns. Their stories are spread across the South. Her books share these important stories.
Learning and Education
Crystal Wilkinson went to Eastern Kentucky University. She earned a degree in Journalism in 1985. Later, in 2003, she got her Master of Fine Arts degree. She studied Creative Writing at Spalding University in Louisville.
Crystal Wilkinson's Writing Career
Early in her career, Crystal Wilkinson worked for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. She helped with public information and community relations. She also edited a newsletter about the environment.
She started volunteering in Lexington. She helped with the Roots and Heritage Festival. She worked on publicity and organized literary readings.
The Affrilachian Poets Movement
During this time, Crystal Wilkinson met other Black writers in Kentucky. They met at the Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Center. This center is at the University of Kentucky. The group included writers like Kelly Norman Ellis and Frank X Walker.
They were guided by the poet Nikky Finney. This group later became known as The Affrilachian Poets. They focus on the experiences of Black people in the Appalachian region. In 2000, Wilkinson published her first book. It was a collection of short stories called Blackberries, Blackberries. This book won the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature.
Teaching and Literary Work
In 1997, Wilkinson became the Assistant Director for the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. This center is in Lexington. She taught writing classes there. She also created many programs for Kentucky's literary arts.
She taught creative writing to high school students. These students were chosen for the Governor's School for the Arts. She also taught at several colleges. These include Eastern Kentucky University, Indiana University Bloomington, and Morehead State University.
Since 2020, Wilkinson has been a professor at the University of Kentucky. She teaches in the English Department. She also works with the UK Appalachian Center. Her research focuses on creative writing and Black culture in Appalachia. She also studies women and the Black rural landscape.
Other Projects
Crystal Wilkinson and her partner, Ronald Davis, started a journal. It was called Mythium: A Journal of Contemporary Literature. It celebrated writers of color. They also owned a bookstore and coffee shop. It was called The Wild Fig Books and Coffee. It was open from 2011 to 2018 in Lexington.
Wilkinson has given many workshops and readings across the U.S. She has shared her work at major conferences.
In 2021, she made history. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Kentucky. She is the first Black woman to hold this important position.
Crystal Wilkinson has also been featured on television shows. These include "Coal Black Voices" and "Connections with Renee Shaw."
Awards and Recognition
Crystal Wilkinson has received many awards for her writing. In 2016, she won the Ernest Gaines Fellowship for Literary Excellence. She also received the Sallie Bingham Award. This award is for promoting activism and feminist art.
Her short story "Holler" was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2010. In 2020, she was named a USA Fellow.
Awards for Blackberries, Blackberries
- 2001 Best Debut Fiction, Today's Librarian Magazine
- 2002 Paul and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature
- PBS Kentucky Educational Television Book Club Pick
Awards for Water Street
- 2003 Longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction
- 2003 Shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award
- PBS Kentucky Educational Television Book Club Pick
Awards for The Birds of Opulence
- Winner of the 10th Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence
- Winner of the 2017 Judy Gaines Young Book Award
- Winner of the 2017 Weatherford Award for Appalachian Fiction
- 2016 Appalachian Book of the Year in Fiction
- 2019 Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award
Awards for Individual Works
- "My Girl Mona" won the 2002 Fiction Prize by the Indiana Review
- "Terrain" won the 2008 Denny C. Plattner Award in Poetry
- "First Sunday Dinner on the Grounds" won Honorable Mention 2008 Denny Plattner Award for Fiction
Published Works
Crystal Wilkinson has written several books and many short stories.
Books and Collections
- Blackberries, Blackberries (2000)
- Water Street (2002)
- The Birds of Opulence (2016)
- Perfect Black (2021)
Short Stories (Selection)
- "Dreams and Reality," Obsidian II: Black Literature in Review (1995)
- "Deviled Eggs," Southern Exposure (1997)
- "Humming Yesterday," Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women (1999)
- "Women Secrets," The Briar Cliff Review (1999)
- "One Affrilachian Woman's Journey Home," Confronting Stereotypes: Back Talk from an American Region (1999)
- "Taking Care," Gifts from Our Grandmothers (2000)
- "Mules," African Voices Magazine (2000)
- "Tobacco" and "Taking Death Beyond the Personal," LIT (2001)
- "My Girl Mona," Indiana Review (2002)
- "The Visit," A Kentucky Christmas (2003)
- "Healing Warrior Marks: Battling Stress," Surviving in the Hour of Darkness (2005)
- "The Fight," High Horse: Contemporary Writing by the MFA Faculty of Spalding University (2005)
- "Spoiled," The Kentucky Anthology: Two Hundred Years of Writing in the Bluegrass State (2005)
- "Birth of a Story in an Hour or Less," Write Now (2006)
- "Before I Met My Father," Daddy, Can I Tell You Something?: Black Daughters Speak to Their Fathers (2006)
- "The Water Witch on Reading," Appalachian Heritage (2006)
- "Flood: 1962," Torch: Poetry, Prose, and Short Stories by African American Women (2007)
- "Witness," Appalachian Heritage (2008)
- "Third Sunday Dinner on the Grounds, July 1976," Appalachian Heritage (2008)
- "Terrain," Appalachian Heritage (2008)
- "Crop," Art Scene (2009)
- "The Prodigals," Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora (2010)
- "Holler," Slice Literary Magazine (2010)
- "The Man I Loved," Appalachian Heritage (2010)
Images for kids
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Crystal Wilkinson
See also
