Silas House Silas House: The History of Every Country

2009 schedule of events

monday, september 28:


Screening of Award-Winning Appalachian Environmental Film Documentary Sludge, 7:00 p.m. at Reynolds Hall, sponsored by the Shepherdstown Film Society. Following the screening will be a discussion of this important environmental issue and its impact on West Virginia, led by Dr. Ed Snyder, Chair of Institute for Environmental Studies.

tuesday, september 29:


A Celebration of Appalachian Storytellers: A Kentucky Muse and The Anthology of Appalachian Writers, 7:00 p.m., at the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies, sponsored by the Friends of the Shepherdstown Library. This program will begin with a short KET documentary on Kentucky writer Silas House and his novel A Parchment of Leaves, followed by introduction of the new Anthology of Appalachian Writers and selected readings by the authors. Reception and book signing for The Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Volume I, will follow.

wednesday, september 30:


Silas House visits with Martinsburg, Jefferson, Musselman, and Berkeley Springs High School students at Martinsburg High School, 9:00 a.m. in Martingsburg, WV;

House Reading House, Martinsburg Public Library and Reception, 10:30 a.m.;

Lunch at the Bavarian Inn with AHWIR Project Director, etal;

Writers Master Class with Silas House, 3:00-4:30 p.m., at Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies;

"The Writing Life, with Silas House," 7:00 p.m. at Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies. Silas House will discusses his work, the writing process, his personal journey toward authorship, public reception will follow.

thursday, october 1:


Scarborough Society Lecture and Awards Ceremony, "The History of Every Country”: Place in the Poetry and Fiction of Silas House,” 8:00 p.m., at Erma Byrd Hall. Silas House will receive the Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award and present the keynote address, WV Fiction Competition Awards presented by Silas House.

friday, october 2:


“The Appalachians: Writers and Renegades, with George Brosi and Silas House,” 5:00 p.m., at Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies;

The Appalachian Heritage Festival Concert, 8:00 p.m., at Frank Theater, Music with John Lily and Silas House, a reading of the award-winning West Virginia Fiction Competition selection.

saturday, october 3:


Appalachian Heritage Festival activities, demonstrations, events all day.

Festival Concert, 8:00 p.m., at Frank Theater. See Festival website here.

silas house: 'the history of every country'

Born in 1971, Silas House, a musician as well as writer, is from Eastern Kentucky and still lives and works in his hometown of Lily, Kentucky. House graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a BA in English, specializing in American literature. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Creative writing degree from Spalding University.

House’s poetry, plays, and novels have been touted as products of a remarkable and profound new talent in Appalachia; he was listed as one of “Ten Emerging Talents in the South” by the Millennial Gathering of Writers at Vanderbilt University in 2000. In 2008, he was singularly honored at the Appalachian Studies Conference for his work and delivered the keynote address to that organization. His books—Clay’s Quilt (2001), A Parchment of Leaves (2002), and The Coal Tattoo (2004)—have won an array of distinctions: two Kentucky Novel of the Year awards, the Award for Special Achievement from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Appalachian Book of the Year Award, and the Chaffin Award. House’s books have also been singled out as finalists for the Southern Book Critics’ Circle Prize, and he has received two Pushcart Prize nominations.

Mentored by Lee Smith, House has written poetry and stories that have appeared in Oxford American, Appalachian Heritage, The Louisville Review, and other journals and magazines. Each year, he directs the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, and was a contributing editor to No Depression magazine, and is one of Nashville’s most successful public relations writers. He recently co-edited Something’s Rising, a collection of oral histories on the topic of mountaintop removal, and he was selected to edit the posthumous manuscript of Appalachian writer James Still. House’s newest book, Eli the Good, will be published later in 2009.