Please join us for the 2025 Edward F. Prichard Lecture, featuring award-winning and critically acclaimed novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet Crystal Wilkinson. 

Wilkinson will read from her most recent book, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, and participate in a moderated conversation. Praisesong is a lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians through powerful storytelling alongside nearly forty comforting recipes.

The Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 2021-23, Wilkinson is recipient of 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. 

Wilkinson currently teaches at the University of Kentucky, where she is the Bush-Holbrook Endowed Professor and Director of the Division of Creative Writing.

The Prichard Lecture is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the lecture. Seating is limited, and RSVPs are appreciated.

Since its inception in 1977, the Edward F. Prichard Lecture Series has featured nationally acclaimed authors, journalists, historians, and public figures. The Prichard Lecture is made possible by an endowment created by Edward F. Prichard, Jr., a New Deal activist who later championed educational change in Kentucky.