Crystal Wilkinson

Crystal Wilkinson was born in Hamilton, Ohio. She is the author of the poetry collection Perfect Black (University Press of Kentucky, 2021) and three works of fiction: The Birds of Opulence (University Press of Kentucky, 2018); Water Street (The University Press of Kentucky, 2017); and Blackberries, Blackberries (The University Press of Kentucky, 2017). She is also the author of the culinary memoir Praise Song for the Kitchen Ghosts (Clarkson Potter/Penguin Random House, 2023). 

Wilkinson is the recipient of a 2022 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, a 2021 O. Henry Prize, a 2020 USA Artists Fellowship in Fiction, and a 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. She has received recognition from the Yaddo Foundation, Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, The Hermitage Foundation, and other organizations. In 2024, she was named a Writing Freedom Fellow.

A professor in the MFA in creative writing program at the University of Kentucky and an associate chair of English, Wilkinson resides in Lexington with her husband, artist and poet Ron Davis. Wilkinson is poet laureate of Kentucky. In 2022, Wilkinson received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.