Silas House (born 1971) is an American writer best known for his novels. He is also a music journalist, environmental activist, and columnist. House's fiction is known for its attention to the natural world, working class characters, and the plight of the rural place and rural people.

Early life and education

House was born and grew up in rural Lily, Laurel County, Kentucky but also spent much of his childhood in nearby Leslie County, Kentucky, which he has cited as the basis for the fictional Crow County, which serves as the setting for his first three novels. He has degrees from Sue Bennett College (Associate's), Eastern Kentucky University (BA in English with emphasis on American literature), and from Spalding University (Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing).^[1] In 2000 House was chosen, along with since-published authors Pamela Duncan, Jeanne Braselton, and Jack Riggs, as one of the ten emerging talents in the south by the Millennial Gathering of Writers at Vanderbilt University.

Writing

House's first novel, Clay's Quilt, was published in 2001. It appeared briefly on the New York Times Best Seller list and became a word-of-mouth success throughout the South. It was a finalist for both the Southeast Booksellers Association fiction award and the Appalachian Writers' Association Book of the Year Award.^[1] He followed with A Parchment of Leaves (2003), which became a national bestseller and was nominated for several major awards. The book was a finalist for the Southern Book Critics Circle Prize and won the Award for Special Achievement from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Chaffin Award for Literature, the Kentucky Novel of the Year Award, and many others.

House's next book, The Coal Tattoo (2004), was a finalist for the Southern Book Critics Circle Prize as well as winning the Appalachian Writers' Association Book of the Year Award, the Kentucky Novel of the Year Award, and others. House's work has been championed by such acclaimed writers as Lee Smith and Larry Brown, who both served as mentors for House.

House's writing has appeared in Oxford American, Newsday, Bayou, The Louisville Review, Night Train, Appalachian Heritage, Wind, and others. His work has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and anthologized in such books as New Stories From the South: The Year's Best, 2004 and many others. He has also written the introductions to Missing Mountains, a study of mountaintop removal; From Walton's Mountain to Tomorrow, a biography of Earl Hamner, Jr., and Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Moses, a new edition by HarperCollins.

Music writing

House is also a music journalist who serves as a contributing editor to No Depression magazine, for which he has written features on Lucinda Williams, Delbert McClinton, and many others. House is also an in-demand press kit writer for Nashville's music business, having penned bios for such artists as Kris Kristofferson, Buddy Miller, Del McCoury, Leann Womack, and many others. In 2001 and 2002 he was a regular contributor to NPR's All Things Considered. In 2005 House wrote the play The Hurting Part, which was produced by the University of Kentucky.

Activism

Lately House has become increasingly visible in the fight against mountaintop removal mining, an environmentally devastating form of coal mining that blasts the entire top off a mountain and fills the valley below with the debris. House wrote the original draft of the 2005 Kentucky authors' statement against the mining practice; since the draft more than three dozen authors have signed it.^[2] House has published many articles about mountaintop removal as well as performing at various concerts as a member of Public Outcry, an acoustic band formed for the purpose of raising awareness about mountaintop removal mining. The other members of the group are authors George Ella Lyon and Anne Shelby, and musicians Jason Howard, Jessie Lynne Keltner, and Kate Larken. Public Outcry tours college campuses to educate students about mountaintop removal.^[3] House and Howard also perform together as The Doolittles.

House has been joined in this fight by other important Kentucky writers such as those who are members of Public Outcry as well as Wendell Berry, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Maurice Manning.

In progress

House has completed a fourth novel, Eli the Good, which will be published in 2009. He has also recently finished editing the posthumous manuscript of poet and novelist James Still, one of House's literary idols. House is currently at work on his fifth novel and a play. He recently co-wrote a screenplay for actress Ashley Judd that has not yet been produced. House serves as writer-in-residence at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, where he also directs the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival. House still resides in Lily, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

Works

• 2001 Clay's Quilt-novel
• 2003 A Parchment of Leaves-novel
• 2004 The Coal Tattoo-novel
• 2005 The Hurting Part-play
• 2008 The Hurting Part-published playscript
• 2009 The Cool of the Day (forthcoming play)
• 2009 Eli the Good (forthcoming novel)

References

External links

• Silas House's website
• Silas House's MySpace page
• ''Southern Hum'' Interview
• ''Creative Loafing'' interview
• Random House books discussion guide on ''Clay's Quilt''
• Random House books discussion guide on ''The Coal Tattoo''
• Random House Books discussion guide on ''A Parchment of Leaves''
• ''No Depression'' website
• ''Lee Smith'' website