We are quite proud to say that Crystal Wilkinson was the keynote speaker at Kentucky College of Art + Design's 2023 graduation ceremony. Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including The Atlantic, Kenyon Review, Oxford American, Story, and Agni. Her much-lauded books include “Perfect Black” (winner of a 2022 NAACP Image Award), “The Birds of Opulence” (winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence), “Water Street” and “Blackberries, Blackberries.”

KyCAD's Kevin Wilson recently caught up with the prolific author and Poet Laureate Emeritus to discuss her love for Kentucky and the book that is perhaps her most personal project to date, "Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks.” You can check out the full story here: Talking History, Ancestry and Food with Crystal Wilkinson.

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