CRYSTAL WILKINSON

Critically acclaimed author - The Birds of Opulence

Award-winning author Crystal Wilkinson has created a body of work that destabilizes common and harmful stereotypes that cloud Appalachia.

Author and poet Crystal Wilkinson, born in 1962, was raised on her grandparents’ cash crop farm in Indian Creek, Kentucky. While she and her grandparents were the only African American family in the area at the time, she has stated that her childhood was “enchanted.” 

Taking pride in her country roots, Wilkinson has reminisced in her writing about her time spent exploring the countryside, playing in the creeks, dreaming, adn writing in her youth. Wilkinson would go on to graduate from Eastern Kentucky University with a degree in journalism. She received a Masters in creative writing from Spalding University in 2003.

In the early 1990s, Wilkinson worked for a local environmental newsletter in Lexington, KY as a public information officer and handled many of their media relation and outreach tasks. She was also a member of The Affrilachian Poets, a group of African American writers from Kentucky, mentored by Nikki Finney. In 2000, she published her first collection of short stories, entitled “Blackberries, Blackberries,” which later received the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. Since then, the author and activist has received several awards, including the 2016 Ernest Gaines Fellowship for Literary Excellence, and has over 30 published works. In 2019, alongside poets Frank X Walker and Ricardo Nazario-Colon, Wilkinson presented at the annual Spring Literary Festival at Western Carolina University.

Recently, Wilkinson was appointed the 2021-22 Kentucky Poet Laureate by Governor Andy Beshear.