Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts

Recipient of a Writing Freedom fellowship, 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, Crystal Wilkinson was Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 2021 to 2023 and currently teaches creative writing at the University of Kentucky where she is a Bush-Holbrook Endowed Professor and Director of the Divsion of Creative Writing. Her latest book, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, a lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians, through powerful storytelling alongside nearly forty comforting recipes, was named a Most Anticipated Book or Best Book in 2024 So Far by Ms. Magazine, Book Riot, Parade, Electric Lit, The Root, Atlanta Journal Constitution, and others.