February 22, 2022 – (Lexington, KY) Author and Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson is the recipient of the 2022 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Poetry for her book Perfect Black.
Perfect Black was previously the recipient of the Thomas D. Clark Medallion Award, which has been awarded annually since 1994 to writers whose literary achievements highlight Kentucky history and culture. In April of 2021, Perfect Black was listed in The New York Times’ “4 Poetry Books to Read This Week!”
An homage to the author’s rural roots in Southern Appalachia, Perfect Black is an intimate portrait of Wilkinson’s life and the experiences that have shaped her character and imbued her style of storytelling with the richness that helped catapult her to the position of Poet Laureate of Kentucky. This collection is written with a vividness of language punctuated by the striking illustrations of Wilkinson’s longtime partner, Ronald W. Davis.
"'Sometimes the dead appear in my kitchen,' Wilkinson writes in this collection, which mines her Kentucky girlhood for lyrics (illustrated by her partner, Ronald W. Davis) about family and heritage."―The New York Times
“The narrative poems in Perfect Black by Crystal Wilkinson invoke a world with the imagistic and geographic precision of Jean Toomer’s Cane; the witty invitation of Lucille Clifton; and the rolling panoramas of Black life explored in the work of Gwendolyn Brooks.”
Named 2021/202NAMED 2021/2022 POET LAUREATE OF KENTUCKY
In recognition of extraordinary contributions to the literary arts, Crystal Wilkinson has been named Kentucky’s Poet Laureate through a process coordinated by the Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, which is supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
wilkinson chosen for 2021 o. henry prize
The O. Henry Prizes are the oldest major prize for short fiction in America. Awarded annually since 1919 (with a break in 2020), the prizes seek to provide a dazzling platform for modern short story writers at all points in their careers. The winners’ stories are collected and published annually by Anchor Books. See Crystal’s prize-winning story here at Lit Hub.
crystal wilkinson Named 2020 usa artist fellow
Our annual, unrestricted awards celebrate artists and cultural practitioners who have significantly contributed to the creative landscape and arts ecosystem of the country. These awards aim to promote the work of these visionary practitioners to a broader public while allowing them to decide how to best support their lives.