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Kentucky Voices
Blackberries, Blackberries
As the title implies, this beautifully written collection bursts with stories reminiscent of blackberries-–-small, succulent morsels that are inviting and sweet, yet sometimes bitter. Crystal Wilkinson provides an almost voyeuristic glimpse into the lives of her Two misfit teenagers seek stolen moments of love and acceptance in the cloak of night ("Hushed"); a woman spends every waking hour obsessed with dying yet ironically watching her loved ones pass away before her ("Waiting on the Reaper"); a wife confronts her husband's mistress in a diner over potato skins and cornbread ("Need"); and a pious young woman's torment erupt in a violent and unsuspecting resolution ("No Ugly Ways").
The stories in this award-winning collection are terse and transient, like snippets taken from random dreams, thoughts, or conversations. Wilkinson is able to embed a vibrancy into each stunningly descriptive and evocative tale. Infused with humor, sadness and honesty, this provocative and haunting work features a new foreword and a new afterword by nationally acclaimed authors Nikky Finney and Honorée Jeffers.
The stories in this award-winning collection are terse and transient, like snippets taken from random dreams, thoughts, or conversations. Wilkinson is able to embed a vibrancy into each stunningly descriptive and evocative tale. Infused with humor, sadness and honesty, this provocative and haunting work features a new foreword and a new afterword by nationally acclaimed authors Nikky Finney and Honorée Jeffers.
176 pages, Paperback
First published July 7, 2000
82 people are currently reading
1054 people want to read
About the author
Crystal Wilkinson
18 books437 followersCrystal 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
December 30, 2015
I read this one gradually over the month of February. I'm still trying to get used to and love short story collections. As it turns out I loved this one. It is a series of short stories that turns around women and young girls. It has a southern drawl to it since it seems to be based in Kentucky. The author Crystal Wilkinson is from Kentucky. Each story contains themes that touch women to their core - sexuality, coming of age, child birth, relationships, racism, etc. The stories are as short as a page and a half to 9 pages long. The thing that is so special about Blackberries, Blackberries is the style of writing. It has that southern folktale style that gets you into the story right away. There is something familiar about the collection. Even though some of the stories you'd like to know more about the characters there are other stories that are told to perfection. They are perfectly balanced out. The twists are never predictable. I would say this is an excellent short story collection to start out with, especially if you like the southern ambience. Wilkinson is a founding member of Affrilachian Poets. "The Affrilachian Poets are a grassroots group of poets of color living in the Appalachian region. The term was coined by Frank X. Walker and poets and fiction writers identified with the movement include Nikki Finney, Kelly Ellis, and Paul Taylor." (Affrilachian Poets website http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/listing...) I can't wait to dig into Water Street and Holler.
March 1, 2018
I try not to say this often so I won’t say it lightly—this is a very important book, with a sort of attentive brevity that you rarely see in work deemed “important.” In less than 200 pages, I felt overwhelmed by and completely aware of these characters, many of whom are the sort of long-suffering matriarchs and caretakers who rarely become the focal points of fiction. There are so many beautifully rendered moments of unexpected friendships, alliances, and romances here, ones that sneak up in your soul and depart as quickly as they came, leaving you in all sorts of feelings.
In some ways, Blackberries, Blackberries reminded me of What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky—like Lesley Nneka Arimah, Crystal Wilkinson is unbelievably skilled in composing full-fleshed characters in several short sentences. Sometimes, this backfired a bit—I did wish we saw more of these characters, perhaps through their recurrence in other stories. One of the obstacles with flash fiction is that its quantity can often obscure quality—after about ten of the stories had passed, I began to blur the dozens of protagonists together, and often had to go back to gain the full merit of each story.
My hands-down favorite story in the collection is “The Awakening,” a small story near the start about a long-suffering woman who builds herself a much deserved day off. Wilkinson vividly imagines her characters outside of the roles society sees for them, and forces you to do the same. I found myself with new perspectives on people generally considered to be little more than matronly, ungodly, or backwards (they are all delightfully country.)
This book is experiencing something of a renaissance, what with a new publication and renewed attention from prominent Southern writers like Nikky Finney. I can’t help but think about how important a contribution Wilkinson’s voice is to our (Black, Southern) literary tradition, as she centers a region of the South (Appalachia) we rarely get black stories from, though clearly there are many to be told. She left me fond of and stunned by the hills and hollers of her home—you see, in the urban North, where every block of land is mapped and accounted for, you can only be so surprised by where you end up—not so much for Wilkinson’s Kentucky. It is this unknowing while knowing your whole life, this small-town caliber of revelation, that makes Blackberries, Blackberries so compelling and mysterious.
After finishing this one, I’m eager to read the work of more black Kentuckians, including that of Gayl Jones, one of Wilkinson’s self-described mentors; including Leesa Cross-Smith’s upcoming novel, Whiskey & Ribbons: A Novel; and of course, including more of this author. I am rushing to fit Wilkinson’s 2016 novel, The Birds of Opulence, into my March or April TBR, in hopes of getting to live with her people for a bit longer.
Technical Note: this edition, published in 2017 by the University Press of Kentucky, has a gorgeous cover I would love to upload to Goodreads. Does anyone know how I might do this, without creating a new edition of the book altogether? The instructions I read were not exactly helpful on this matter…
In some ways, Blackberries, Blackberries reminded me of What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky—like Lesley Nneka Arimah, Crystal Wilkinson is unbelievably skilled in composing full-fleshed characters in several short sentences. Sometimes, this backfired a bit—I did wish we saw more of these characters, perhaps through their recurrence in other stories. One of the obstacles with flash fiction is that its quantity can often obscure quality—after about ten of the stories had passed, I began to blur the dozens of protagonists together, and often had to go back to gain the full merit of each story.
My hands-down favorite story in the collection is “The Awakening,” a small story near the start about a long-suffering woman who builds herself a much deserved day off. Wilkinson vividly imagines her characters outside of the roles society sees for them, and forces you to do the same. I found myself with new perspectives on people generally considered to be little more than matronly, ungodly, or backwards (they are all delightfully country.)
This book is experiencing something of a renaissance, what with a new publication and renewed attention from prominent Southern writers like Nikky Finney. I can’t help but think about how important a contribution Wilkinson’s voice is to our (Black, Southern) literary tradition, as she centers a region of the South (Appalachia) we rarely get black stories from, though clearly there are many to be told. She left me fond of and stunned by the hills and hollers of her home—you see, in the urban North, where every block of land is mapped and accounted for, you can only be so surprised by where you end up—not so much for Wilkinson’s Kentucky. It is this unknowing while knowing your whole life, this small-town caliber of revelation, that makes Blackberries, Blackberries so compelling and mysterious.
After finishing this one, I’m eager to read the work of more black Kentuckians, including that of Gayl Jones, one of Wilkinson’s self-described mentors; including Leesa Cross-Smith’s upcoming novel, Whiskey & Ribbons: A Novel; and of course, including more of this author. I am rushing to fit Wilkinson’s 2016 novel, The Birds of Opulence, into my March or April TBR, in hopes of getting to live with her people for a bit longer.
Technical Note: this edition, published in 2017 by the University Press of Kentucky, has a gorgeous cover I would love to upload to Goodreads. Does anyone know how I might do this, without creating a new edition of the book altogether? The instructions I read were not exactly helpful on this matter…
November 30, 2018
I first learned of Crystal Wilkinson while browsing a list of winners for the Ernest J. Gaines Award For Literary Excellence, a national award honoring rising African-American fiction writers. Wilkinson won the award in 2016 for her novel ‘Birds Of Opulence.’ This is her debut, a collection of eighteen weighty short stories filled with the voices and histories of “black, country women with curious lives.” Wilkinson’s prose is lean (“His eyes: shiny, the color of buckeyes”), sensual (“Her velvet hands gave honor to herself and places unseen, untouched for what seemed like a hundred lifetimes”), and funny (“Lotta folks went to they grave worrying and fretting cause they couldn’t crack into Miss Ethel’s business”). A few themes and phrases are a bit repetitious, and several of the stories are painfully short, but there’s a whole lot of living packed into this slender little book - living on the edge, living in sin, and living like there’s no tomorrow. There’s also a little bit of dying - ‘Waiting On The Reaper’ is one of the most emotional, powerful stories I’ve ever experienced. I’m excited to read more of this author’s honest, “Affrilachian” writing. 3.5 “really good” stars.
P.S. For any OTSLT members who happen to read this review, there’s a chapter called ‘Mules’ (although they are not dead 😉) and one called ‘Deviled Eggs.’
P.S. For any OTSLT members who happen to read this review, there’s a chapter called ‘Mules’ (although they are not dead 😉) and one called ‘Deviled Eggs.’
April 4, 2015
4.75
This may be the best short story collection I've read. Still surprised that this was Wilkinson's debut. Well-crafted stories with a southern twist.
This may be the best short story collection I've read. Still surprised that this was Wilkinson's debut. Well-crafted stories with a southern twist.
October 20, 2020
Crystal Wilkinson says that being country is as much part of her identity as being black and in this short story collection she brings us stories about black women from rural south.
It is a great collection, can't say that I disliked any of the stories. We look at these women dealing with different issues of womanhood (and race in some cases) while living in the country. In a few pages Crystal Wilkinson manages to bring us a well rounded character that touches us. Her language is lyrical, descriptive and beautiful which adds a lot to emotion. A really good book.
It is a great collection, can't say that I disliked any of the stories. We look at these women dealing with different issues of womanhood (and race in some cases) while living in the country. In a few pages Crystal Wilkinson manages to bring us a well rounded character that touches us. Her language is lyrical, descriptive and beautiful which adds a lot to emotion. A really good book.
March 30, 2011
Crystal Wilkinson has managed to capture in this text a series of expressive, heartfelt, funny, sorrowful, sentient, and somber vignettes of life amongst folk in the wide open range and spread out places. The problems are the same, but there is a need for a community to draw together even with the distance of two counties between them.
Each story reads like a snapshot. It reminds me of visiting my Grammy Kathy or Great Aunt Ethel and looking through one of their photo albums where each picture had a weaving, winding, and interconnected story behind it that tied richly into every other picture.
Kathy and Ethel made ceramic figurines. So many ceramic figurines. Ethel had an entire addition onto her house filled with these magnificent creations. Each one carried a story or a sentiment filled within it. You could imagine that her library of ceramics were a million little pieces of her life that she was sought to give away before she passed. And give she did. Her and Kathy. Every time we or someone else would visit, they would leave with one of those ceramic figurines.
This series is a book of ceramics that makes you hearken back to your own stories that you carry from before your elder country folk became city folk and life got a little different than it was before.
Each story reads like a snapshot. It reminds me of visiting my Grammy Kathy or Great Aunt Ethel and looking through one of their photo albums where each picture had a weaving, winding, and interconnected story behind it that tied richly into every other picture.
Kathy and Ethel made ceramic figurines. So many ceramic figurines. Ethel had an entire addition onto her house filled with these magnificent creations. Each one carried a story or a sentiment filled within it. You could imagine that her library of ceramics were a million little pieces of her life that she was sought to give away before she passed. And give she did. Her and Kathy. Every time we or someone else would visit, they would leave with one of those ceramic figurines.
This series is a book of ceramics that makes you hearken back to your own stories that you carry from before your elder country folk became city folk and life got a little different than it was before.
April 24, 2019
This book is as important to the canon of Kentucky literature as any that has come before it. It is rich in character, and richer still in place and cultural experience. It magnifies how much more similar we country/rural folk are rather than different: every worry, every struggle, every joy regardless of color or economic status. Whether the reader is Appalachian, Southern, rural, black, white, mixed or none of these, there's more to be learned from these pages than one can imagine. Wilkinson is a Kentucky treasure to the bone.
August 12, 2020
This is the second collection of stories by Crystal Wilkinson that I've read in a short period of time. Lyrical, tough, poetic, the setting of small-town Kentucky is vibrantly alive, as are the lives of these indomitable women, dealing with family, with memories, with love lost and found, with children to raise and jobs to go to, to finding their way in the present, as it's affected by the past. It all brims with life, and the intersections of gender, race, and rurality. These are stories too often untold, and I loved being in the world of these women, even as it often hurt my heart.
November 11, 2018
A wonderful collection. I liked every story.
July 20, 2019
Stories of womanness from girlhood to death and dying.
Couldn’t love it more if I tried.
Couldn’t love it more if I tried.
December 27, 2020
Wilkinson’s first book is a collection of short stories—perfect for my attention span just now! These stories feature Black women in rural Kentucky, young and old, each with her individual take on the world, her own idea of herself.
In some stories, such as “Tipping the Scales”, we meet women who can’t be bothered by society’s conventions. A big woman, “not sloppy fat, though, ”Josephina Childs has “sure had her hands full in the men department most all her life.” All her life she’s been aware of how “the whole town ‘bout tripped over” themselves to find out what was going on with her mother in the house Ethel’s lover build for them. So when Josephina wants children, she goes ahead and has them. I could hardly wait to find out what happens as she charts her own path among the gossiping townsfolk.
A few stories are from a man’s point of view, such as “Mine” in which Joe Scruggs complains about his former girlfriend Racine. She’d left him when she found out he was cheating on her. Now he sees that she has cut the long, straightened hair he’d loved in favor of short natural hair. Worse than that, she’s had breast reduction surgery and “black women do not get their breasts worked on.” The voice is pitch perfect as Joe thinks about what he sees as Racine’s insult to him and about Darlene, the woman he cheated with, now his wife. It’s a strong indictment of a man’s idea of ownership.
Wilkinson’s use of voice carries each of these stories. Without resorting to dialect, she captures the individual rhythms of her characters’ thoughts and speech. In “Mules” she finds just the right voice for a naïve girl, just starting to develop and learning to navigate the complicated and risky world of men. In “Deviled Eggs” Wilkinson gives voice to a young girl who is dragged along when her mother goes to her job as a domestic servant and has a startling lesson in racism from the elderly white woman who thinks she is doing the child a favor. In “Need” we meet three characters in a café, two women embarking on a difficult conversation and their male waiter, each with a distinctive voice.
I’ve been thinking recently about the shape of short stories, how they begin, how they end. The variety of story shapes is this collection is part of what makes it so enticing. Some stories spiral back to their beginning, while others rise to a new understanding. Many for me ended in ways that surprised me, taking a direction I hadn’t expected: Wilkinson displaying the penchant for independence we see in many of her characters. I love being surprised!
In every story, Wilkinson demonstrates the writer’s mantra that the personal is universal. These may be Black women in Appalachia, but I saw myself in each of them. Reading their stories has been a gift, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
In some stories, such as “Tipping the Scales”, we meet women who can’t be bothered by society’s conventions. A big woman, “not sloppy fat, though, ”Josephina Childs has “sure had her hands full in the men department most all her life.” All her life she’s been aware of how “the whole town ‘bout tripped over” themselves to find out what was going on with her mother in the house Ethel’s lover build for them. So when Josephina wants children, she goes ahead and has them. I could hardly wait to find out what happens as she charts her own path among the gossiping townsfolk.
A few stories are from a man’s point of view, such as “Mine” in which Joe Scruggs complains about his former girlfriend Racine. She’d left him when she found out he was cheating on her. Now he sees that she has cut the long, straightened hair he’d loved in favor of short natural hair. Worse than that, she’s had breast reduction surgery and “black women do not get their breasts worked on.” The voice is pitch perfect as Joe thinks about what he sees as Racine’s insult to him and about Darlene, the woman he cheated with, now his wife. It’s a strong indictment of a man’s idea of ownership.
Wilkinson’s use of voice carries each of these stories. Without resorting to dialect, she captures the individual rhythms of her characters’ thoughts and speech. In “Mules” she finds just the right voice for a naïve girl, just starting to develop and learning to navigate the complicated and risky world of men. In “Deviled Eggs” Wilkinson gives voice to a young girl who is dragged along when her mother goes to her job as a domestic servant and has a startling lesson in racism from the elderly white woman who thinks she is doing the child a favor. In “Need” we meet three characters in a café, two women embarking on a difficult conversation and their male waiter, each with a distinctive voice.
I’ve been thinking recently about the shape of short stories, how they begin, how they end. The variety of story shapes is this collection is part of what makes it so enticing. Some stories spiral back to their beginning, while others rise to a new understanding. Many for me ended in ways that surprised me, taking a direction I hadn’t expected: Wilkinson displaying the penchant for independence we see in many of her characters. I love being surprised!
In every story, Wilkinson demonstrates the writer’s mantra that the personal is universal. These may be Black women in Appalachia, but I saw myself in each of them. Reading their stories has been a gift, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
October 4, 2008
What I appreciated about these stories is the way that Wilkinson was able to draw us into everyone of her characters' lives and then really just give us these moments in such alluring detail. There is an inherent "life goes on" feeling about many of them and that whether it's a woman trying unsuccessfully to break the bonds of a controlling mother or another keeping a horrible secret from her mother so long that she finally breaks and kills her abusive husband and ends up in prison, these women are so real, but never overly dramatized or sad. I think that's why I liked this book so much. Wilkinson was able to hold that balance between the darkness in the lives of these women and the sense of hopefulness so there is an underlying sense of optimism in many of these pieces, but neither overpowers the other.
February 2, 2012
One interesting thing about her stories is that every now and then one is told by a sort of spying, omniscent narrator that never participates directly. I've long wondered how much you can get to know an author from what they write. Surely the contents of the stories can be imagined, and therefore have little resemblence to the author. But what about these consistent storytelling characteristics?
That being said, this collection features a wide variety of stories that feel like they could have happened in some tucked away little Appalachian town. It's a good little book and I hope for more.
That being said, this collection features a wide variety of stories that feel like they could have happened in some tucked away little Appalachian town. It's a good little book and I hope for more.
July 29, 2012
I had to think a bit if this book deserved 3 or 4 stars. It's made of several short stories about black strong women trying to make a living in a tough world. Some short stories (eg. the first and the last ones) were pretty amazing and made me think a lot about what I would do in the same situation. Other ones weren't that good but got my attention anyway. I'm giving it 4 stars because I believe I will remember some stories and their unique characters for a long long time. Their stories are powerful and hard to let go!
January 24, 2012
A compilation of short stories set in the rural South about the lives of African American men and women. The stories may be short but they are haunting and beautifully written. They are stories of love, fear, pain, acceptance, resignation, romance and determination. Not all the stories are pretty. Not all the stories are sad. But all the stories will leave a lasting imprint on your soul after you've read them.
August 7, 2021
CW/TW: sexual assault, rape, pedophilia, murder, suicide, suicide attempts, suicidal ideation.
The author is a master of imagery and dialogue, her writing is beautiful and her voice is strong.
A good collection of short stories and a quick read. Spanning all sorts of topics from children learnin lessons to infidelity and death.
My favorites include:
The Awakening
Hushed
Humming Back Yesterday
Womens Secrets
Deviled Eggs
Waiting on the reaper
The author is a master of imagery and dialogue, her writing is beautiful and her voice is strong.
A good collection of short stories and a quick read. Spanning all sorts of topics from children learnin lessons to infidelity and death.
My favorites include:
The Awakening
Hushed
Humming Back Yesterday
Womens Secrets
Deviled Eggs
Waiting on the reaper
December 29, 2012
This collection of short stories is a well-written, documented account of black Appalachian women. Their joys, sorrows, triumps and pain are articulated in a humananistic manner, very realistic and telling.
Wilkinson has delved into the tenacity of women who perservere regardless of their circumstances and gender. True meaning of womanist.
4-4.5 rating.
Wilkinson has delved into the tenacity of women who perservere regardless of their circumstances and gender. True meaning of womanist.
4-4.5 rating.
May 25, 2011
I love this collection. It tells the story of so many women...no matter the race we all feel the same things at one time or another. Wilkinson describes these feelings beautifully. I had the chance to meet her at a Writer's Conference in Hazard, KY and I was very impressed with her spirit.
October 26, 2011
This was a collection of stories about Black life in Kentucky as seen through the eyes of the people who experienced it. Very good writing about the culture and lives as seen through the author's eyes.
February 14, 2022
This is an absolutely beautiful collection of stories. The author weaves a perfect use of language and life into stories that made me want to stop and get to know them more deeply. I grew up in Appalachia and many of the stories took me back to simple moments I didn’t realize I had forgotten.
I will note that there are possible triggers in this book, including sexual abuse (against children and adults) and physical abuse. Some moments were very hard for me to read and might be for others as well. However, the way the stories are told, you can easily skip a story that might trigger you. Don’t count this book out because of its sometimes difficult stories.
I would recommend this book to anyone but think it is very important for readers outside of Appalachia to read in order to gain a better understanding of life in these hills and hollers. It’s also an important book for white people to read to help us have a tiny bit of understanding for the struggles and heartaches that our black neighbors and friends experience.
I will note that there are possible triggers in this book, including sexual abuse (against children and adults) and physical abuse. Some moments were very hard for me to read and might be for others as well. However, the way the stories are told, you can easily skip a story that might trigger you. Don’t count this book out because of its sometimes difficult stories.
I would recommend this book to anyone but think it is very important for readers outside of Appalachia to read in order to gain a better understanding of life in these hills and hollers. It’s also an important book for white people to read to help us have a tiny bit of understanding for the struggles and heartaches that our black neighbors and friends experience.
March 21, 2022
Every one of these short stories is brilliant. Crystal Wilkinson does such a great job at capturing humanity, raw emotion, and even little pieces of wisdom and beauty in her characters’ most ugly and painful situations. She puts the reader in plenty of uncomfortable spots, not knowing who or what to root for, and the themes are unapologetically dark. Be forewarned that there is lots of infidelity, sexual abuse, racial tension, and devastating loss on these pages. There’s lots to relate to for any woman who has been through something devastatingly painful, and still these stories are written so beautifully that it’s hard to pick favorites. I think mine are: “Humming Back Yesterday,” “Tipping the Scales,” “Mules,” “Ritual,” and “Need,” though I could be persuaded to choose almost any of them as a favorite. They’re not happy, not cut-and-dry displays of right and wrong, but they capture humanity and challenge the reader to think, and I think those are amazing qualities in any collection.
March 11, 2024
I started this collection of short stories a couple years ago and then stopped reading it. I picked it up about year later, started it again, and stopped again. Finally on the third try, I completed it.
Some stories in this collection are ones that I will always remember -- for the story or for the feeling it evoked (Humming Back Yesterday, The Wonderer, Waiting on the Reaper, No Ugly Ways). But others I'm already having trouble remembering even right after I finished them. Some of the latter were either just too short to hold my interest, or were just underwhelming. Overall, despite some beautiful stories, I gave the collection 4 stars because it felt uneven to me.
This was the author's first book and maybe the unevenness was due to that. But there was also brilliance and beauty in some of these stories and so I'll definitely be reading her additional works (The Birds of Opulence is next on my list from this author).
Some stories in this collection are ones that I will always remember -- for the story or for the feeling it evoked (Humming Back Yesterday, The Wonderer, Waiting on the Reaper, No Ugly Ways). But others I'm already having trouble remembering even right after I finished them. Some of the latter were either just too short to hold my interest, or were just underwhelming. Overall, despite some beautiful stories, I gave the collection 4 stars because it felt uneven to me.
This was the author's first book and maybe the unevenness was due to that. But there was also brilliance and beauty in some of these stories and so I'll definitely be reading her additional works (The Birds of Opulence is next on my list from this author).
September 17, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed this classic collection of short stories about the lives of black, country women, which was first published over two decades ago and which is as relevant and meaningful today as when it was first written. It is a joy to read.
The author, a former poet laureate of the state of Kentucky, deftly shapes portraits of African-American women living everyday lives in the small towns and dusty hollers of rural Appalachia. Be they old or young, well-off or not so well-off, vivacious or demure, her characters are so finely drawn and crafted that they are recognizable even to those of us who have never walked the back roads of Kentucky.
I read the 2017 University Press of Kentucky edition, which contains a forward by poet Nikky Finney, and an insightful afterword by Honoree Fannone Jeffers, and which I recommend.
The author, a former poet laureate of the state of Kentucky, deftly shapes portraits of African-American women living everyday lives in the small towns and dusty hollers of rural Appalachia. Be they old or young, well-off or not so well-off, vivacious or demure, her characters are so finely drawn and crafted that they are recognizable even to those of us who have never walked the back roads of Kentucky.
I read the 2017 University Press of Kentucky edition, which contains a forward by poet Nikky Finney, and an insightful afterword by Honoree Fannone Jeffers, and which I recommend.
February 28, 2023
The writing was lovely and easy to follow but the content of many of the stories left a lot to be desired for me. The one from the perspective of a man who was upset about his ex having a breast reduction really rubbed me the wrong way considering I myself have 46DDDs and if I wanted to get a bit removed it wouldn't be the end of the fucking world and a little less back pain would be nice.... I would have enjoyed that story if it had been from her perspective. Too many things just rubbed the wrong way for me in this collection.
May 20, 2017
Beautiful, uplifting, heartbreaking, tragic. This describes the different stories by different black women and their life experiences in Kentucky. Their stories cross a wide range of spectrums and will leave you feeling countless emotions.
September 24, 2017
Great Writing Style and Emotions
I picked up this book because I was taking a course under Crystal Wilkinson and fell in love with her writing style. It's beautifully crafted stories and some might bring you to tears.
I picked up this book because I was taking a course under Crystal Wilkinson and fell in love with her writing style. It's beautifully crafted stories and some might bring you to tears.
October 8, 2018
I had this on my list because I don't read many works from published by small presses and want to make more of an effort to read books from these kinds of sources. The author was local-ish to me and her Kentucky roots showed in every short story. This was one lyrical and mesmerizing collection.
July 17, 2022
Soul soothing !
Highly recommend this book to everyone. Excellent prose that evokes a deep heart felt stream of consciousness. Each story contains a representation of dome member of everyone's family .
Highly recommend this book to everyone. Excellent prose that evokes a deep heart felt stream of consciousness. Each story contains a representation of dome member of everyone's family .
June 25, 2024
A beautiful collection of short stories about the real lives of Black country folk. Crystal Wilkinson has become one of my favorite authors. I actually applauded at the end. 👏🏾
July Reading Challenge: repeating words in title
July Reading Challenge: repeating words in title
March 14, 2025
Some of the stories were excellent- usually the longer ones. Some of the shorter ones felt like they ended abruptly and left me hanging. A little hyper-focused on sexual themes. Overall, a good read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews