2000
Blackberries, Blackberries (Amazon Encore 2000) is a collection of interconnected stories in the tradition of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. The stories focus of African Americans in the rural setting of Southern Appalachia. These Affilachian stories are written in a bold, lyrical style that is breath-taking and that set the tone for stories that will follow in Wilkinson's canon.
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2002
Water Street (Amazon Encore 2002) continues Wilkinson's cycle collection of an Appalachian community where Black and White live in close proximity and where family truth and tragedy awaken us to the secret lives of all, whether Black, White, or somewhere in between. Characters' lives interweave, and we have a contemporary portrayal of Black lives in small-town America in the tradition of Henry Louis Gates Colored People and the stories of Eudora Welty. Taken individually, the tales in Water Street are gripping and insightful; taken together, they are they portray a community that everyone can also recognize as their own. Water Street is the 2019 West Virginia Center for the Book's Common Read Selection, One Book One West Virginia.
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2015
HICK POETICS is an anthology of contemporary American poets connected to rural landscapes. In addition to poems this book includes short essays by a wide variety of established and emerging writers including Michael Earl Craig, Juliana Sphar, G.C.Waldrep and Mei-mei Berssenbrugge to name a few. There is no other assemblage of rural voices this broad; there is no other collection so fully exploring and celebrating Nowhere, USA.
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2016
The Birds of Opulence (UKT 2016) takes us into the rural town of Opulence, a mostly African American community, some of whose inhabitants you'll recognize and have come to know. Wilkinson deals with the manifestations of mental health, seldom talked about in the Black community, as well as issues of race and class in this brilliant, lyrical novel. She tells a story of folks trying to cope and understand issues that are often incomprehensible and always complex. It is the women, the "birds" of Opulence who capture our imagination, with their strength, the pressures that weigh on their lives, and the obstacles they must face with grace and courage--but when all is said and done the men in their lives will both fascinate and perplex us when the story is finished. Beyond all else, this is a love story and a tale of devotion uncommon. The Birds of Opulence is winner of both the Weatherford Award and the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence.
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