Crystal Wilkinson

African American writer Crystal Wilkinson is the author of two books of short stories, Blackberries, Blackberries (2000) and Water Street (2002, 2005). Her stories have appeared in literary anthologies such as Confronting Appalachian Stereotypes: Back Talk from an American Region, Gift from Our Grandmothers, Home and Beyond: A Half-Century of Short Stories by Kentucky Writers, A Kentucky Christmas, and Gumbo: Stories by Black Writers. Wilkinson has also published in literary journals such as Obsidian II: Black Literature in Review, Southern Exposure, The Briar Cliff Review, LIT, Calyx, African Voices, Indiana Review and Appalachian Heritage.

Crystal Wilkinson is Writer in Residence at Morehead State University and a creative writing faculty member at Spalding University. She was the 2002 recipient of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. Her latest work, Water Street, was a long-list finalist for the prestigious Orange Prize and was short-listed for a Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation Legacy Award in fiction.

Crystal Wilkinson was raised in Indian Creek, Kentucky by her grandparents, Silas and Christine Wilkinson, who took her into their care at six weeks of age. Her fiction reflects a love and homage to her rural roots and stands as a tribute to her grandparents, who gave her “the freedom to explore the countryside and to write, to dream, to discover." Wilkinson is currently working on two novels and lives in Midway, KY with her partner, the artist Ron Davis.