BCPL

Press release

Tuesday, the Boyle County Public Library will host an Author Chat with Silas House. The award-winning author will be visiting multiple venues in Danville Tuesday, as part of  the Humana/Doherty Library Series. The event will start at 4:30 p.m.

House is the author of numerous bestselling books, including “Clay’s Quilt” and “A Parchment of Leaves.” Other award-winning titles include “The Coal Tattoo,” “Eli the Good,” “Same Sun Here,” and his latest novel “Southernmost.”

On Tuesday, the event will be a casual conversation between audience members and the author.

“The library seeks to provide quality programs that appeal to varied audiences, and we are happy to partner with Grace Doherty Library to make this visit with Silas House possible,” says Caleb Conover, Public Services Librarian. The discussion will include House’s work about rural people, his new documentary film “Hillbilly,” which is his response to rural stereotypes, and the impacts of the book “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance. Copies of many of his works can be found at the library, with multiple copies of Southernmost currently available at the main circulation desk.

A book kit of the novel will also be available for reservation in the near future. In addition to the program at the library, Centre College will host two events with the author on Tuesday. A Conversation with Silas House will be held 11:30 a.m. in the Grissom Reading Room at Doherty Library , and An Evening with Silas House will be held 7:30 p.m. in Weisiger Theatre.

House is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels, one book of creative nonfiction, and several plays.  His writing frequently appears in The New York Times and Salon, and he is a former commentator for NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

House’s work has been published in Time, Newsday, Garden and Gun, Oxford American, Narrative and many other publications. He is the winner of the E.B. White Award, Nautilus Award, Appalachian Book of the Year, the Hobson Medal, Intellectual Freedom Prize and many others.

House’s most recent novel, Southernmost (2018) was recently long listed for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, won the Judy Gaines Young Award, and was chosen as a best book of the year by magazines such as Booklist, The Advocate, Paste, Garden and Gun, Southern Living, as well as by organizations such as the American Library Association and The New York Public Library. 

House serves on the fiction faculty for the Spalding University MFA in Creative Writing and as the NEH Chair at Berea College.  He is a native of Southeastern Kentucky who lives in Berea with his husband, two children, and three dogs.