CRYSTAL WILKINSON (1962)

by Frank X. Walker

A native of rural Indian Creek, Kentucky, Crystal is a poet and fiction writer. A graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, she is currently the assistant director of Lexington's Carnegie Center for Literacy, where she also serves as a creative writing instructor and heads up the writing mentor program. Her poetry and short fiction has appeared in Obsidian II: Black Literature in Review, Calyx, The Briar Cliff Review, African Voices, Indiana Review, Eclipsing a Nappy New Millennium and Southern Exposure. Her first collection of short stories, Blackberries, Blackberries (2000) was published by Toby Press. Her second release Water Street, 1979 is due out in 2002. Wilkinson is a member of the Affrilachian Poets and served on the creative writing faculty for the Kentucky Governor's School for the Arts from 1997-2001. She is also a featured writer/teacher on the documentary "Coal Black Voices" (2001) and in the the "GED Connections" (2001) video series produced for PBS by KET.