COMPARING NOTES

Austin Johnson Kentucky Poet Laureates Crystal Wilkinson (left) and George Ella Lyon (right).

Comparing Notes

A conversation with two Kentucky Poet Laureates

BY KEVIN NANCE

Friends for 30 years, George Ella Lyon and Crystal Wilkinson have much in common. Both are writers with roots in rural Kentucky who’ve lived most of their adult lives in Lexington. Both write in multiple genres, including poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction; Lyon is well known for her poem “Where I’m From,” Wilkinson for her awardwinning 2016 novel The Birds of Opulence. Lyon’s new volume of poems, Back to the Light, is just out from the University Press of Kentucky, which will also publish Wilkinson’s poetry collection, Perfect Black (with artwork by her partner, Ronald W. Davis), in August.

Now they have a new connection. On April 23, Wilkinson was inducted as the new Kentucky Poet Laureate, the same post Lyon held in 2015-16. In a conversation in my living room a few days before the ceremony, the two women talked about the position, which requires the writer to travel the state giving readings. ACE: George Ella, how did being

Kentucky Poet Laureate affect you? LYON: It changed my life a lot at the time, because I was on the road so much. That first year I think I drove 11,000 miles, giving readings, doing workshops, visiting classes. I drove three hubcaps off the car — I don’t always make turns quite right. (Laughs.) But I had some amazing experiences. My absolute highlight was talking to a third grade class and they asked me how long I’d been writing poetry. I said I wrote my first poem when I was nine, and told them how old I was then and told them, “You do the math.” And this one child said,

“You’ve been writing poems for 57 years.” And they burst into applause! (Laughs.) ACE: Is that what the Poet Laureate does, mainly? Promote poetry? WILKINSON: To be an ambassador, yes, although various Poet Laureates have interpreted that in different ways. Each person has come up with their own mission. ACE: Going back centuries to the

Poet Laureates of England, the job involved writing poems for special occasions, or poems that addressed current events and contemporary themes. Would you consider that part of this job now? WILKINSON: Yes, but I think I already do that. I don’t think

I’ll write any differently. But already when I select pieces,

I’m a little bit more aware of the immediate public. I think

I’ll probably read more poems instead of stories and pieces of novels, in part because I have a book of poems coming out. And

I’m enjoying who I’m becoming in that sense. (Laughs.) ACE: George Ella, is there something about having grown up in rural Kentucky — although you and Crystal have both lived in Lexington for many years — that informed what you did as Poet Laureate? LYON: Sure. I used my “Where I’m

From” poem as the centerpiece of my time as Poet Laureate and invited people all over the state to write their own

“Where I’m From” poems. We did an interactive map on the

Kentucky Arts Council website.

People sent in their poems and you could click on a county and the poems would come up. I think there were 700-and-some poems from 83 counties. ACE: In one of your recent

Facebook posts, Crystal — WILKINSON: Oh god (laughs) — ACE: You described yourself as very much an introvert. Some days you wouldn’t leave your house if you didn’t have to — words to that effect. How will that affect you as Poet Laureate, a job that requires you to be out meeting people all the time? WILKINSON: I think I’ve been doing this long enough that I’ll be comfortable. It’s one thing to travel across the state and be with my own people here in

Kentucky, but it’s something else to have to catch a plane and do all that when I travel farther away. So I’m kind of looking forward to it. ACE: George Ella, are you more outgoing? LYON: No, I’m ingoing. (Laughs.)

For me, there’s a certain kind of shock when you go home from trips and you have to kind of come back to the person that you actually are, and let the persona go, because there’s a gap between you and the public person. WILKINSON: And Zoom has complicated all that. I’ll say to

Ron, “Be quiet, I’ve gotta go be Crystal Wilkinson here in a minute.” (Laughs.) LYON: And when you’re driving or flying someplace, you have some time to ease into that other place. But when you go into another room, you’ve got to do it right then. And then you have to do it when you go back downstairs. My husband will say, “Why are you looking like that? Your voice sounds funny.” (Laughs.) ACE: Crystal, are you the first black woman to serve as

Kentucky Poet Laureate? WILKINSON: Yes, Frank [X

Walker] was the first black man and I’m the first black woman. ACE: Is there a sense of extra burden or mission in that for you? WILKINSON: Not in any kind of overt way. But I was a little black girl in Casey County, in a town where the only black people I knew were my family members until I went away to college, and so you’re always a role model, whether you want to be or not. I think there will be young girls, brown girls and black girls, who will say,

“Oh! The first black woman

Poet Laureate. I can do that.”

And they may not have felt they could, before, because they didn’t see themselves represented. So I take that very seriously. I won’t be waving a banner, but I’ll be there. LYON: It’s a huge thing. WILKINSON: It feels big, yeah. It makes me proud to be the first, but as long as we’re still having these firsts, it means we have more work to do. ACE: Having done the job, George

Ella, do you have any advice for

Crystal? LYON: I would say, Crystal, take good care of yourself. And be sure to say no when you need to. It’s a simple word, but it’s really hard to say. □

Megan McCardwell

Bite-sized Stories

Collins serves up a collection for short attention spans BY KRISTINA ROSEN

Writer and Lexington native Whitney Collins returned to her hometown 23 years ago after time spent in New England, North Carolina, and Chicago — never expecting to stay for the next few decades. She says, “Not thinking I would be here all that long and I have been here ever since.” Over the years she has watched this city continue to grow into a more culturally exciting place, and she thinks there’s been a noticeable shift. “For so many years Lexington was known for— and still is—the horse industry, basketball, bourbon.” But she now finds that “it is [also] known for music, visual arts, and the literary community.” She continues, “That to me is the most exciting part.”

Collins has worked as a contributing editor for The Weeklings, a book reviewer for Barnes & Noble, and an editorial board member of The Big Jewel. She’s also written for McSweeney’s, Salon, and Huffington Post.

Sitting across from Collins on a brisk spring morning in the Distillery District, she is celebrating her first standalone short story collection with a cup of unadulterated hot black coffee — no cream, no sugar. It’s immediately apparent why she would pick Kate McKinnon to play her in the movie version of her life. “Nobody makes me laugh harder than her,” she explains, before adding, “...But maybe it’s a vampire movie?”

She describes Big Bad, released in March, as “a collection of thirteen short stories that are about underdogs and lost souls.” The jacket promises it “serves up real-world predicaments in unremarkable places.”

It’s also served up a few awards for Collins. Big Bad won Sarabande Books’ 2019 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. She received a 2020 Pushcart Prize for her story “The Entertainer,” a 2020 Pushcart Special Mention for her story “The Pupil,” and her story, “Ricky,” won the 2020 American Short(er) Fiction Prize.

The eponymous story is a retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood.” Each of the characters in all of the stories “must repeatedly choose to fight or flee the ‘big bad’ that dwells within us all.”

The collection is fiction, but Collins freely admits she “draws on generic experiences or crazy stories.” She plays the “What if” game with things she overhears or sees in real life — taking everyday situations and places (think motels, dormitories, tiki bars) and adding elements of suspense and gore.

Her favorite is “The Next,” written from the perspective of a mischievous seven-year-old. “That story encapsulates what I try to put in all of my stories,” which is “detail, dark humor, and some sadness.” She continues, “I like to surprise people with emotional depth, by pushing it with unexpected comedy.”

Asked about favorite Kentucky authors who’ve inspired her, Kentucky’s new poet laureate Crystal Wilkinson makes the list. Collins says, The Birds of Opulence is a book I read at Spalding. You can tell she is a poet in addition to being an amazing fiction writer. So few are amazing at both.”

In November 2016, Collins began writing Big Bad in 2016 while pursuing her MFA from Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing. As part of her MFA program, she had to submit 30 pages of writing per month. When she graduated in November 2018, the compilation of these thirteen stories—plus a few more—was her graduating thesis. She submitted the full manuscript to Sarabande Books in Louisville, which specializes in short fiction.

Collins is almost done with her next collection of short stories.

Fielding the obvious question, “what about a novel?” she responds with a laugh and an eye roll, “Of course the publishing industry wants you to have the novel next.”

Given contemporary culture and our shortening attention spans, she says, “There is a lot of change happening in the literary world. More people are open to short stories.” She continues, “To me short stories lend themselves to episodic nature. I am hoping short stories become the new thing that everyone wants to write, to read.”

Big Bad was recommended among Publishers Weekly’s list of “Books for Short Attention Spans 2021.”□

Just a Few Miles South

Timeless Recipes from Our Favorite Places

For twenty years, diners in the Bluegrass have been able to satisfy their cravings for Ouita Michel’s sustainable, farm-to-table cuisine at her many acclaimed restaurants. Each restaurant — from Wallace Station to Holly Hill Inn — features dishes that combine Kentucky’s bounty with Michel’s celebrated vision. In her long-awaited book, Chef Ouita Michel shares stories of the recipes, the restaurants and staff that cook and serve them, and her love for the personalities who dine at her tables throughout the Bluegrass, and who often inspired dishes. Chef Ouita is signing books at each of her restaurants throughout May. Pre-order your book online for your preferred date and location. Quantities for restaurant signings are limited.

Just a Few Miles South is available online.

Chef Ouita and Sam Fore celebrate the release of Just a Few Miles South on Monday, May 3 at 7 pm, Joseph Beth (online via zoom). □