Torch presents Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson

Torch Literary Arts presents Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson. Join us for a delicious evening of storytelling and a cooking demo from a recipe straight from the book. 

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Crystal Wilkinson, a recent fellowship recipient of the Academy of American Poets,  is the award-winning author of  Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, a culinary memoir, Perfect Black, a collection of poems,  and three works of fiction—The Birds of Opulence , Water Street and Blackberries, Blackberries. She is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, an O. Henry Prize, a USA Artists Fellowship, and an Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. She has received recognition from the Yaddo Foundation, Hedgebrook, The Vermont Studio Center for the Arts,  The Hermitage Foundation and others. Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in  The Atlantic, The Kenyon Review, STORY, Agni Literary Journal, Emergence, Oxford American and Southern Cultures.  She was Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 2021 to 2023. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Kentucky where she is a Bush-Holbrook Endowed Professor.

Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization established to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by emerging and experienced writers alike. Torch has featured work by Colleen J. McElroy, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, retreats, and special events.