Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts NOLA Projects benefitted public libraries and

Projects benefitted public libraries and book collections

In some dishes

The only rock we eat

creamiest potato casserole ever conceived

Reem then translates this spirit into her own work in California

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts NOLA Projects benefitted public libraries andYears ago, when O. Henry Prize winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, she felt her late grandmothers 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. Later, as an expert cook, Wilkinson shares nearly