Renee talks with poet and educator Crystal Wilkinson, a Casey County native about growing up in rural Kentucky, writing and more on the next Connections with Renee Shaw. The program airs Friday, Feb. 6 at 4/3 p.m. CT on KET2 and Sunday, Feb. 8 at 1:30/12:30 p.m. CT on KET1.
The author of two collections of short stories and a novel in progress, Wilkinson is also a teacher and the writer in residence at Morehead State University. She discusses her transition from full-time writer to teacher, her early morning writing regiment and Blackberries, Blackberries, her first collection of stories.
Wilkinson talks about growing up on a farm in Casey County, where her connection with nature, a recurring theme in her work, began. Wilkinson's family was the only black family in the area during her childhood, and she discusses her mixed feelings about her upbringing, her tight-knit family and their dependence on the land as tobacco farmers.
Wilkinson also delves into her inspiration as a writer, how she creates characters and her experience as a member of the Affrilachian poets, a collective of African-American Kentucky poets.
Connections with Renee Shaw is a KET production, produced by Shaw and Carolyn Gwinn. More information about Connections, including streaming video, is available at www.ket.org/connections.
