Praisesong For The Kitchen Ghosts (Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks)by Crystal Wilkinson

Years ago, when O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, she felt her late grandmother's presence. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in her kitchen; there were her ancestors, too, stirring, measuring, and braising alongside her.  These are her kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who settled in Appalachia and made a life, a legacy, and a cuisine.

An expert cook, Wilkinson shares the history and stories of these ancestors along with nearly forty family recipes rooted deep in the past, full of flavor - delicious favorites including Corn Pudding, Chicken and Dumplings, Granny Christine's Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits - brought to vivid life through stunning photography.  Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts honors the mothers who came before, the land that provided for generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia.

Hard Cover.

About the author: Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky's poet laureate from 2021 to 2023, is the award-winning author of Perfect Black; The Birds of Opulence; Water Street; and Blackberries, Blackberries.

She is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry, an O. Henry Prize, a USA Artists Fellowship, and an Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. She has received recognition from Yaddo, Hedgebrook, The Hermitage Foundation, and others. Her short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She currently teaches at the University of Kentucky in the creative writing MFA program.