By Kit Cottrell

Silas House received a warm welcome at the Appalachian Heritage Featured Author Reading, which highlighted the Summer 2007 edition of Appalachian Heritage honoring founding editor Albert Stewart (1914-2001).  House is the author of such well-known novels as Clay’s Quilt (2001), A Parchment of Leaves (2002), and The Coal Tattoo (2004), as well as the play The Hurting Part (2005).  House is also a two-time recipient of the Kentucky Novel of the Year Award. 

The crowd was an eclectic mix of authors, students, and local citizens; a diversity that demonstrates the universal appeal of House’s writing.   George Brosi, editor of Appalachian Heritage, gave an enthusiastic introduction to House, who began with a brief speech crediting Stewart for making it “possible for my career”, as well as to Appalachian Heritage  for “publishing my first short story,” and the Appalachian Writers Workshop, also founded by Stewart in 1977.  House attended the workshop in 1995.  “I was scared to death, but everybody put their arms around me like a warm mountain,” said House.

House read two poems by Stewart both of which invoked the smells, sights, and sounds of Appalachia.  House reflected, “Al Stewart will live on in the quiet country.”  House then proceeded to read his first published short story, which appeared in the 1995 Fall edition of Appalachian Heritage under the title, “Daddy, Tell Me About the War”; since titled “The Evening is Now.”  The piece concerns a young boy pondering the meanings of war as he sits in the yard while his daddy cuts his hair.  With each snip of the scissors and every wisp of hair that falls to the ground, House conjures up an image of long country evenings filled with quiet contemplation.   The fact that the story addresses the subject of war was commented on by House who said, “My thoughts on war and patriotism are much more complex than when I wrote that; unfortunately, the story is still relevant.”

The evening closed with a question-and-answer session that ranged in content from mountaintop removal to folklore.  When asked by an audience member for advice on writing about controversial issues, House cautioned writers to be prepared to face criticism and to “believe in every word that you write.”

It was an appropriate finish to a wonderful evening in which House came full circle from the genesis of Appalachian Heritage, to his first beginnings as a published author, to reading the poems of the man who began it all; Albert Stewart.   Art by the late Russell May, of Prestonsburg, Kentucky, was featured by his daughter, Kathy May, of Charlottesville, Virginia.  May was the featured artist of the summer issue.

Silas House serves as writer-in-resident at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, where he also directs the Mountain Heritage Festival.  He is also an important fixture at the annual Appalachian Writers Workshop in Hindman, Kentucky which focuses on writers and writings about the Appalachian region.

The reading was sponsored by the Appalachian Center and the Department of English, Theatre, and Speech Communication.