Recent News

Crystal Wilkinson addresses Jo Shoop Symposium

"Local Treasure" to Speak on Campus


Submitted on October 22, 2018

Georgetown College’s Department of English is delighted to welcome to campus poet and novelist Crystal Wilkinson as the featured speaker for its annual Jo Shoop Symposium. Wilkinson is the award-winning author of The Birds of Opulence (winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence), Water Street, and Blackberries, Blackberries, among others. Her presentation is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday, October 23, in the Ward Room of the Ensor Learning Resource Center.Birds of Opulence cover

 “Crystal Wilkinson is a local treasure,” remarked Holly Barbaccia, Professor, and Chair, Department of English. “Her bookstore and café on the north side of Lexington (The Wild Fig) provided a community space, while her novel has received national recognition. We are so excited to welcome her to campus.”

Nominated for both the Orange Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, Ms. Wilkinson has received recognition from The Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Kentucky Arts Council, The Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She is also a recipient of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. Additionally, she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in the Oxford American and Southern Cultures.

Writings by Ms. Wilkinson, associate professor of English at the University of Kentucky, are available at area bookstores and from online retailers.

The Jo Shoop Women’s Symposium is open to the public, free of charge. Seating is limited, however. The event, sponsored by the Department of English, Women’s Studies, SWAGS (Student Women and Gender Society), and Sigma Tau Delta, began nearly two decades ago and each year provides the opportunity for students and others in the community to hear and learn from outstanding authors.


Request More Info chevron_right