Silas House, acclaimed novelist and Kentucky poet laureate, to speak at Hanover Sept. 14
Silas House, award-winning novelist, Kentucky poet laureate, educator and environmental activist, will deliver a special address during a mid-September appearance on Hanover College’s campus.
Since 2010, House has served as associate professor and National Endowment for the Humanities Chair in Appalachian Studies at Berea College, where he teaches Appalachian literature and a writing workshop. He is best known, however, as one of the nation’s most significant writers about the American South.
House, who was born in Corbin, Ky., has written extensively about rural places and working-class people for more than 20 years. His 2001 novel, “Clay’s Quilt,” is recognized as a foundational text for Appalachian literature. The work’s two companion novels, “A Parchment of Leaves” and “The Coal Tattoo,” have been reissued and are now known collectively as “The Appalachian Trilogy.”
He was honored with the Kentucky’s 2020 Artist Award in recognition of his contributions to the arts in the commonwealth. In 2023, he was named the Bluegrass State’s poet laureate by Gov. Andy Beshear.
House will address building empathy through storytelling at 7 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 14, at Fitzgibbon Recital Hall, Lynn Center for Fine Arts. The event is open to the public, free of charge.
“A Parchment of Leaves,” a national best-seller, earned the 2003 Kentucky Novel of the Year Award and also received the Fellowship of Southern Writers’ Award for Special Achievement. “The Coal Tattoo” captured the Appalachian Writers’ Association Book of the Year Award and was named the 2004 Kentucky novel of the year.
House’s 2018 work, “Southernmost,” is currently in development as a motion picture. “Lark Ascending,” published in 2022, was winner of the Southern Book Prize and earned Gold Medal designation by the Nautilus Book Award. That year, he was awarded Lambda Literary Foundation’s Duggins Prize for Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist, given exclusively to an LGBTQ writer in the U.S.
A music journalist, House has written features on artists including Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Lucinda Williams and Nickel Creek, among others. He also served as writer, producer and creative director of the music video for country artist Tyler Childers’ 2023 single “In Your Love.” The work received Grammy Award and Academy of Country Music nominations for best music video.
House was executive producer, co-writer and one of the featured subjects in “Hillbilly,” a 2018 Hulu documentary that confronted Appalachian stereotypes. The film explores the hillbilly image and long-standing media and cultural representation of Appalachia and its people.
As an environmental activist, House worked to protect the mountains of Appalachia and stop mountaintop removal coal mining. He serves on the Appalachian Voices board of directors. The organization, founded in 1997, strives to protect Central and Southern Appalachia’s environment and promote an equitable clean-energy economy.
In 2023, House was honored by the city of Lexington, Ky. where he now resides. Mayor Linda Gorton and the city council proclaimed May 25 as Silas House Day, which is now annually celebrated.
Hanover College Social Justice Leadership Program
Hero image courtesy of Silas House and includes Crow County artwork by Lonrism
Inset image courtesy of The Lane Report
