Crystal Wilkinson

Writer In Residence

Water Street

Water Street

Nominated for THE ORANGE PRIZE 2003 & HURSTON/WRIGHT LEGACY AWARD 2003

"On Water Street, every person has at least two stories to tell. One story that the light of day shines on and the other that lives only in the pitch black of night, the kind of story that a person carries beneath their breastbones for safekeeping." Water Street examines the secret lives of neighbors and friends who live on Water Street in a small town in Kentucky. Assured and intimate, Wilkinson weaves us in and out of the lives of Water Street's inhabitants, dealing with love, loss, truth and tragedy, as the narration switches from person to person and their remarkable, varied and authentic voices are revealed under Wilkinson's sure hand. This is a superb, cohesive work which marks Ms. Wilkinson's evolution as a gifted observer and writer.

Blackberries, Blackberries

Blackberries, Blackberries

Winner of the 2002 CHAFFIN LITERARY AWARD

An enchanting, haunting collection of stories by Crystal Wilkinson, a self-described Black, country girl and poet from rural Kentucky. The stories explore the joys and pain of the women of "Affrilachia", and will touch the reader profoundly.

"I grew up on a farm in Indian Creek, Kentucky during the seventies. I swam in creeks and roamed the knobs and hills. We had an outhouse and no inside running water. Our house was heated by coal and wood-burning stoves and we lived so far back in the woods that we could get only one television station. But it was a place of beauty - trees, green grass and blue sky as far as you could see. I am country. Being country is as much a part of me as my full lips, wide hips, dreadlocks and high cheek bones. There are many Black country folks who have lived and are living in small towns, up hollers and across knobs. They are all over the South—scattered like milk thistle seeds in the wind. The stories in this book are centered in these places.” - CRYSTAL E. WILKINSON