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UK Libraries celebrated Crystal Wilkinson, Bush-Holbrook Endowed Professor of English, as the 2026 recipient of the UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement. She was recognized at the UK Libraries' annual Spring Celebration on May 14.
An award-winning and critically acclaimed novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet, Wilkinson’s writing and research explore Black Appalachia and the rural South. A founding member of the Affrilachian Poets and Kentucky’s first Black woman Poet Laureate (2021-23), Wilkinson’s genre-spanning work – powerful, personal, and profound – celebrates the particularities of place, community, and heritage and the distinctive identities that spring from their tangled roots.
“For decades, Crystal Wilkinson has explored the richness and complexity of the rural Black experience and what it means to be Appalachian. Not only as a writer, but as an educator and an advocate, she has inspired countless others to discover the power of their voices,” said Doug Way, Dean of Libraries. “We are thrilled to join in the wide recognition of the resonance of her work, and proud to honor her contributions to our campus, our community, our state, and our entire region with this award.”
Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Wilkinson grew up on her grandparents’ 64-acre tobacco farm in Indian Creek, Kentucky. It is there, particularly in her grandparents’ kitchen, that Appalachian and African American cultures forged Wilkinson’s unique voice – a past and a process vividly celebrated in her most recent work, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts (2024). A culinary memoir that blends poetry, prose, and fiction, the book lyrically explores Wilkinson’s childhood and presents 40 recipes from five generations of her family.
Wilkinson’s other work includes three novels, Blackberries, Blackberries (2000), Water Street (2002), and The Birds of Opulence (2016), and a book of poetry, Perfect Black (2021). Her short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including The Atlantic, The Kenyon Review, STORY, Agni Literary Journal, Emergence, Oxford American, and Southern Cultures.
Wilkinson is the editor of Screen Door Press, an imprint from the University Press of Kentucky dedicated to discovering exceptional and varied voices within Black literary traditions.
Wilkinson is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, an O. Henry Prize, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a USA Artists Fellowship, and an Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. She was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2025.
Wilkinson graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism in 1985. In 1997, she became Assistant Director for the Carnegie Center for Literacy &Learning in Lexington, and from 1997-2001 she taught at the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts. She earned an MFA from Spalding University in 2003. Wilkinson has had a range of writer-in-residence and teaching positions, including Eastern Kentucky University (2002-03), Indiana University-Bloomington (2004-07), Morehead State University (2006-2014), and Berea College (2014-2018).
One of UK’s most prestigious awards, the UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement is awarded annually to a Kentucky resident whose accomplishments in the fields of science, literature, art, or philanthropy have made a profound impact on the Commonwealth and represent the pinnacle of creative or scholarly thought.
Selections are determined by the UK Libraries National Advisory Board, who take great pride in recognizing high intellectual achievement by Kentuckians and encouraging creative thought across the Commonwealth.
WIlkinson was honored along with several other award winners:
