Acclaimed multi-award-winning and “New York Times” best-selling novelist, Silas House, will be the featured guest at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021 at noon. Immediately following the event, House will be available for a book signing in the library auditorium.
In 2016, House was invited to read at the Library of Congress. His 2018 novel “Southernmost” won the Weatherford Award for Fiction, the Judy Gaines Young Award, was long-listed for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, was short-listed for the Willie Morris Award and appeared on several Best of 2018 lists.
In addition to “Southernmost,” House is the author of five additional novels—”Clay’s Quilt,” 2001; “A Parchment of Leaves,” 2003; “The Coal Tattoo,” 2005; “Eli the Good,” 2009; and “Same Sun Here” (co-authored with Neela Vaswani) 2012,—as well as a book of creative nonfiction—”Something’s Rising,” co-authored with Jason Howard, 2009; and three plays.
The Kentucky-based author said he takes great pride in his work and being able to share the place he calls home with so many others.
“In my work I strive to show Kentucky not as a perfect or terrible place but as a complex place,” he said in a press release. “Complexity is the opposite of stereotype and far too much media shows Kentuckians as caricatures. I want to put Kentuckians on the page who are as complicated as the people I know who live here. I often get asked about why I use so much sense of place in my work and I answer that when you grow up and live in a place as rich in color and cadence, as diverse in topography and ways of being as Kentucky, you can’t help but to want to share that with the reader.”
In 2021, House was the recipient of the Governor’s Award from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear for his service to the arts in his home state. He currently serves on the fiction faculty at the Spalding School of Creative Writing and as the NEH Chair at Berea College.
House is a former commentator for NPR’s “All Things Considered”. His writing has appeared recently in “Time,” “The Atlantic,” “Ecotone,” “The Advocate,” “Garden and Gun,” and “Oxford American.” As a music journalist, House has worked with artists such as Kacey Musgraves, Kris Kristofferson, Lucinda Williams, Jason Isbell, Leann Womack, Tyler Childers, and many others. House is also the host of the popular podcast “On the Porch”.
This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily represent those of the West Virginia Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Ohio County Public Library is located at 52 16th Street in Wheeling, WV. For more information about Silas House’s Lunch With Books program, call OCPL at 304-232-0244 or visit the library’s website at ohiocountylibrary.org.
