Visiting Writers Series: Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Affrilachian Author Crystal Wilkinson

Award-winning author and former Kentucky poet laureate Crystal Wilkinson will discuss the role food plays in her writing on October 18 at 6 p.m. in UNC Asheville’s Highsmith Student Union, Blue Ridge Room.

Drawing from material from her forthcoming food memoir with recipes, “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts,” Wilkinson will be in conversation with UNC Asheville English professor, Erica Abrams Locklear. In their discussion, Wilkinson will explore how food functions as inspiration, a tie to one’s past, and an important marker of cultural identity. This is the third in the Thomas Howerton lecture series, “Diverse Roots at the Common Table: Culinary Conversations in the American South.”

Wilkinson, a recent fellowship recipient of the Academy of American Poets, is also the author of a forthcoming culinary memoir, “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks,” a collection of poems, “Perfect Black,” and three works of fiction—”The Birds of Opulence,” “Water Street” and “Blackberries, Blackberries.” She currently teaches at the University of Kentucky where she is the Bush-Holbrook Professor in Creative Writing.

Malaprop’s Bookstore will have copies of Wilkinson’s books available, and there will be book signing following the event.