Silas House

Silas Dwane House (born August 7, 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.

House is also known as a representative for LGBTQ Appalachians and Southerners and is certainly among the most visible LGBTQ people associated with rural America.

House was born in Corbin, Kentucky, and grew up in nearby rural Lily, Laurel County, Kentucky, but he 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 Eastern Kentucky University (BA in English with emphasis on American literature), and from Spalding University (Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing).

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.

At the time he was a rural mail carrier.

He sold his first novel shortly thereafter.

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 Southern United States.

It was a finalist for both the Southeast Booksellers' Association Fiction Award and the Appalachian Writers' Association Book of the Year Award.

He published his novel A Parchment of Leaves in 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 others.

House's next book, The Coal Tattoo (2004), was a finalist for the Southern Book Critics' Circle Prize as well as won 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, Brad Watson, and Larry Brown, all of whom were mentors for House.

Barbara Kingsolver has said in print that House is one of her "favorite writers and favorite human beings" and environmental writer and activist Wendell Berry has expressed his appreciation of House many times, including during an interview with the New York Times.

House published Something's Rising with creative nonfiction writer Jason Kyle Howard in March 2009.

The book is a series of profiles of various anti-mountaintop removal activists from the region, including musicians Jean Ritchie and Kathy Mattea, author Denise Giardina, and activist Judy Bonds.

The book was called "revelatory" by esteemed author and oral historian Studs Terkel, in his last blurb.

Writers Lee Smith and Hal Crowther co-authored the introduction.

House's fourth novel, Eli the Good, was published in September 2009 to great acclaim.

The book emerged as a number one bestseller on the Southern lists and received the first annual Storylines Prize from the New York Public Library system, an award given to a book for use in the ESL and literacy programs of New York City, as well as an E.B. White Award given by the American Booksellers Association.

His short story "Recruiters", which has appeared in Anthology of Appalachian Writing, Vol. 2 now has a new Larkspur Press edition from Kentucky's Artisan Printer.

This special edition is illustrated by Arwen Donahue and includes the original song "Brennen's Ballad" by Sue Massek, which was the inspiration for the story.

House's first book written for elementary-aged children, Same Sun Here, was published in February 2012 and co-written with Neela Vaswani.

The book was the winner of the Parent's Choice Award and was the #1 Most Recommended Book by Independent Booksellers in the entire nation during the spring of 2012.

House and Vaswani recorded the highly successful audiobook version of the novel, which won an Earphones Award, and the Audie Award for Best Narration for Children's Title Ages 8–12, the highest honor given to audiobooks.

The novel won over a dozen awards, including the Nautilus Award and a South Asian Book Association Honor Book.

House's sixth novel, Southernmost was published in June 2018 and was long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

The book was a SIBA bestseller and received wide acclaim, especially among other writers, such as Dorothy Allison, Jennifer Haigh, Lee Smith, Garth Greenwell, and many others.

It won the 2019 Judy Gaines Young Book Award, given by Transylvania University annually to recognize an excellent book from the Appalachian region.

The book won the Weatherford Award for Fiction, was longlisted for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal and short-listed for the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction.

House compiled a music playlist on the literature and music blog "Largehearted Boy" to accompany Southernmost. The playlist includes music by Brandi Carlile, Celia Cruz, Patsy Cline, and others.

House's seventh novel, Lark Ascending, was released in the fall of 2022 and was an immediate indie bestseller and winner of the 2023 Southern Book Prize in the category of fiction.

The book received praise from authors such as Barbara Kingsolver, Billy O'Callaghan, Wiley Cash, Margaret Renkl, Michelle Gallen, and others.

The novel is considered a departure for House as it is set twenty years in the future, mostly in Ireland.

House has said the book is his mediation on grief, the demise of democracy, and the climate crisis.

House's writing has appeared several times in The New York Times (including his hugely popular essay "The Art of Being Still") and The Atlantic.

Recently his work has also appeared in Time, The Washington Post, The Bitter Southerner, and other publications.