“Riveting presentation! Engaged audience. Timely message.” — Kentucky Humanities, 2024
“Crystal is such a genuinely kind human being. Not a single one of our attendees felt rushed during the book signing.” — Partners for Rural Impact, 2024
“Crystal Wilkinson is a literary force! She is a master storyteller who welcomes all who enter the worlds she creates on and off the page.” — Torch Literary Arts, 2024
“It was an honor and a true pleasure to host Crystal Wilkinson for a reading from Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts and discussion about writing, spirituality, family, and cooking. She was enormously generous in conversation with our students, faculty, and staff and we all left the events with new energy and resources for approaching our own work in different areas.” — Princeton Crossroads Project, 2024
“Crystal Wilkinson is an inspiration. Her work speaks for itself, but to host her in person is a real gift. From her thoughtful interactions with students to meaningful insights delivered on stage, she inspires all who have the privilege to attend one of her events.” — UNC Asheville, 2023
“Crystal Wilkinson’s vulnerability – on Black girlhood, reverent lineage of homeplace, impact of mental health fractures in the family, and adolescent sexual awakening and trauma — in her poetry collection, Perfect Black, reveals the soul of so many unrecognized Black girls. In her presentation, reading selections and discussing themes and her writing process, she revealed them. Young women in the audience at Jackson State University gasped at her reclamation of Black girl fatness as PERFECT. They sat straighter. So needed is her literary insights that one young women, her respondent, highlight and marked and took notes immediately after handed a copy of Perfect Black. Bemused, as I had bought it for myself, I told her: “it’s yours”. It is only the second poetry collection she’s ever owned and Perfect Black mattered to her. Marked up and torn pages to this volume is all the testimony that is needed.” — Shanna L. Smith, Ph.D., Jackson State U
“Crystal Wilkinson has the rare ability to infuse her subtle yet powerful prose with emotion, mood, place, and lyricism, making even familiar themes seem fresh and new without any cloying notes. Her unapologetic work distinguishes her as unique, Appalachian American voice, whose evocative food heritage writing is second to none. Your mouth will water. Your stomach will growl. Your heart will bask. Delicious.” — Ohio County Public Library
“Crystal Wilkinson was phenomenal to work with. She was kind, generous with her time, and really stepped up during the panel discussion when our moderator had to cancel at the last minute due to a funeral. Crystal prepared questions for her co-panelist, Frank X Walker, to guide the conversation into riveting territory, and after the panel, one of my colleagues texted me: ‘That hour of conversation was magnificent! I enjoyed every moment of it. So moving and so provoking.’ After the poetry reading, students told me that her poems brought them to tears and I can attest to that. I was literally on the edge of my seat the entire time, so captivated by her presence on screen. I hope to invite her to read in person one day, because if she is this powerful on a Zoom, I cannot begin to imagine the energy of an in-person event!” — U of Alabama, 2021
