On the heels of her first published book of poetry, crystal wilkinson talks about her childhood, her inspirations and the challenges of poetry
To say Crystal Wilkinson – novelist, memoirist, associate professor, former bookstore owner and Kentucky’s current state poet laureate – loves books is to state the obvious. That the award-winning writer has made a career centering on books is something she considers a happy outcome, but Wilkinson says if she had instead become a doctor or a visual artist – two careers she considered as a child and young adult – her love of books would have followed her.
Her relationship with the written word has been intrinsic to Wilkinson’s life since she was a child, growing up in the Knobs region of south-central Kentucky among a family of farmers and storytellers.
“Books were valued in my house,” said Wilkinson. “My grandmother coveted books, and she read to me every night. I learned to read early because she read to me so frequently. She always said that once I had read all of the books in the house, I began to write my own.”
Indeed, Wilkinson has been writing for much of her life, and the award-winning novels and short story collections she has published over the past two decades have been widely acclaimed by readers and critics alike. Earlier this year, months after being named Kentucky’s new state poet laureate, the writer embarked into new territory with the release of “Perfect Black,” her first published collection of poetry. While she said that in some ways poetry was “her first love,” she also notes writing poems is a longer, more intimate and more difficult process for her than writing fiction or non-fiction.
“I’ve written poetry my entire life, even before I became a storyteller, but I would often keep them for myself,” she explained. “This experience of allowing poems out into the world is new for me.”
Mark Cornelison
Wilkinson is an associate professor at the University of Kentucky, where she teaches various writing courses. Photo by Mark Corneilson | UK Photo
Regardless of how long she has been in the public eye, Wilkinson’s love for words and stories hearkens back to her childhood – an experience during which, growing up on her grandparents’ tobacco farm in Indian Creek, Kentucky, she describes herself as a “watcher,” always taking in the gestures, behaviors and textures of her surroundings.
“I was bashful as a child,” she explained. “I spent a lot of time quietly observing.”
With her imagination unspooling along the rolling hills and landscape of her surroundings, that silence and observation gave birth to the artist within her, Wilkinson said. Her strong and mighty literary voice was largely influenced by her surroundings, and the observations she made as a young Black woman growing up in rural Kentucky with a complex family have manifested as the subjects of many of her writings. From the gate, critics have taken notice of her voice: authentic, lilting, unapologetic. Wilkinson’s debut book, “Blackberries, Blackberries,” a short story collection about “the ordinary and extraordinary….black country women with curious lives,” published in 2001, won the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. “Water Street,” a subsequent short story collection about the secret lives of neighbors and friends in a small Kentucky town, was a finalist for both the Orange Prize and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. “Birds of Opulence,” Wilkinson’s 2016 novel set in the fictional Kentucky town of Opulence, introduced a host of memorable characters and won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, The Judy Young Gaines Prize for Fiction and the Weatherford Award.
In March 2021, Wilkinson was appointed Kentucky’s poet laureate for the 2021-22 term. The first African-American woman to ever receive that distinction, Wilkinson is serving her two-year term traveling the state, speaking and conducting poetry readings in schools and libraries and working as an advocate for Kentucky’s literary community. She is in the process of launching a podcast that will feature both a known Kentucky writer and emerging writers, young and old, in each episode.
Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson recently took some time to answer some questions for Smiley Pete writer Celeste Lewis.
Wilkinson grew up on her grandparents’ tobacco farm in the Knobs Region of south-central Kentucky. Her upbringing provides a wealth of inspiration for her writing. Photo furnished
Tell me about where you are from and growing up. I am from Indian Creek, Kentucky, which is in the south central part of Kentucky—the Knobs Region. I lived with my grandparents on their tobacco farm. My childhood was isolated and quiet, which was a perfect incubator for becoming a writer. I didn’t speak much as a child. I spent so much time wandering the land, honing my skills of observation, but I didn’t care much for talking, preferring to think and write over speaking even at an early age. But I was always watching. I watched every single thing – every gesture, every smile, every movement, the way the light came into the window, everything.
What is your writing process? Is it different with certain projects? What is different for you when you are writing a novel as opposed to poetry? I think my process is odd, but in reality I’m sure it’s not that much different from other artists’ processes. Some days I feel like everything must be perfect in order for me to write. The planets must be lined up, the light shining in the window just right. Some days it’s just ‘go-time.’ Often, my process has a lot to do with the time of day. I like to borrow advice from the financial planners when they say ‘pay yourself first’ as one of the first principles of saving. If I wake early and get my writing done, then I feel so much better for the rest of the day. If I wait too long, everything becomes an obstacle standing in the way of the progress of my writing. I know having an early morning routine is true for a lot of artist, but I write best and longer early in the morning.
We all miss The Wild Fig, the north Lexington bookstore you and your partner, Ron Davis, used to own. Tell me about the importance of bookstores in your life. What are some of your favorites you have visited? Ahh, we miss The Wild Fig too. I dreamed of opening a bookstore for a long time before we actually did that. I think many writers do. I [recently] found a business plan for a bookstore in my papers from the early ’90s. I laughed when I found that. My first job was working in a library – I didn’t grow up with bookstores and got all of my books from the Weekly Reader program. So my love of bookstores began with my love of libraries. These wonderful pleasure houses of books in whatever form always excited me. We have our own pleasure house of books in our house: about 1,000 books in our own personal library. What a question regarding my favorite bookstores! Every bookstore I visit is my favorite while I’m there. I love antiquarian bookstores, used bookstores, new bookstores, and I love the variety and scope of independent bookstores that I’ve visited all over the country. I’ve been to hundreds of bookstores, and I have a dream list of bookstores that I’d like to visit in the future. On that list are Harriets Bookshop and Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee and Books in Philadelphia. There are also bookstores that I miss and mourn like Sisterspace and Books in Washington, D.C.; our own Morris Books here in Lexington; Poet’s House in NYC; and so many others…I left so many out. This entire interview could be about bookstores.
With a lifelong passion for books and bookshops, Wilkinson and her long-time partner, Ronald Davis, opened Wild Fig Books in 2011. The shop, cited as the first African-American-owned book shop in Kentucky, closed in 2018. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
Do you have a favorite character from literature? Again, so many, but when I think of this question right now, I’d have to say Baby Suggs from Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved.’ Baby Suggs’s sermon is among my favorite passages in any book I’ve ever read. And her strength as a character, the way Morrison wrote her, the fact that she opens up a healing space in her community after she has lost all of her children through enslavement and still she makes a way to care for others and provides healing space, gets to me each time. Morrison has given us so many gifts in her characters and her books, but Baby Suggs continues to be a favorite.
What do you love most about Lexington? There are so many things, but I would have to say one of the best things is our literary community. We have so many great writers here and everyone roots for each other. That’s apparently unique. Many other writers I know from other places say they don’t have that in their community.
What drew you to poetry? How has that developed as a medium for you? I’ve always written poetry, but showing a poem or publishing a poem is rare for me. I am comfortable with fiction. I am somewhat comfortable with nonfiction. But poetry makes me nervous. It makes me nervous when I read it. It makes me nervous when I write it. Not necessarily in a bad way, but no matter the subject or context, the best poems scare me a little – the vulnerability of the human existence in a poem is frightening to me. The distillation of it. A poet’s ability to let just a few words stand and represent is fascinating to me. I have always held poetry up as a genre and a form. I admire so many poets and have often resisted the urge to write poetry because I think even when you are not writing directly about yourself that there is an exposure to the insides of the writer that you are privy to. I don’t like being that seen.
Tell me about your new book. ‘Perfect Black’ is quirky in some ways. If a reader is looking for a straight-up poetry collection, they won’t find it here on these pages. There are lyrics and flash essays, and other forms at work too. It’s a memoir in so many ways in that it is a historical account of not only my life but the lives of other Black women and girls, and maybe specifically those who are living or have lived in rural spaces. Not all of the work is directly or specifically about me, but collectively the book tells about a life that is parallel with my own. The beginning of the book is about girlhood and coming of age; the middle section is a political loosening of the tongue or strength gathering; and the final section defines ‘a new woman.’ So I think there is an invitation to the reader to feel as though they’ve been on a journey with me.
What is something you have always wanted to write about but haven’t tackled yet? I don’t think there is anything that I haven’t tackled yet that is on my mind to write about at this moment, but one of the most difficult things to write about for me is my relationship with my mother and her long-term battle with her mental health. I have been trying to finish a memoir about her for a number of years, and though I have many, many pages, it still isn’t quite finished. It is the hardest thing I’ve ever tackled and I may be working on it for the rest of my life.
What is something about you we’d be surprised to know? That I’m an introvert. People are always surprised when I say this because my life is so public, but I really am an introvert. I tell so much about my life through my writing in one way or another that I can’t think of much else that someone might be surprised to know about me.
What is the best lesson you ever learned? To live and let live.
What strikes you about this time we are living in right now? The repetitive nature of it. We’ve had pandemics before; we’ve had racial unrest before. We have an inability to change even though we think we have. It makes you question our progress and if things will ever really change. We are spoiled as Americans. We have everything we need. We can get flour for instance whenever we need it, but for many that isn’t the case. We have such freedom that we take for granted. In a literary and personal way, it has made me evaluate the role of art and particularly writing. Its made me want to look at my own history and be more reflective.
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Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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Photo by Emily Giancarlo