Hopkinsville, KY – Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House will be the featured speaker at two upcoming events at Hopkinsville Community College as part of the college’s 60th Anniversary. Planters Bank is the Presenting Sponsor for both events.“We are grateful for the continued support of Planters Bank. Their sponsorship makes it possible for the college to bring a notable and accomplished speaker such as Silas House to our community,” stated HCC President/CEO Alissa Young.
Noon – 1:00pm on Thursday, March 20th, HCC will host The Breathitt Lecture event featuring Silas House. “HCC created the speaker’s series in 2016 to honor the remarkable life and work of Governor Edward T. “Ned” Breathitt, 51st Governor of Kentucky, Hopkinsville native, and graduate of Hopkinsville High School. We are excited to continue the tradition with an award-winning Kentucky author,” explained VP of Marketing & Advancement Rena Young.
The educational lecture will be held on campus in the Auditorium Building, Riley Lecture Hall and is free and open to all. House will discuss his literary works and offer a brief book signing after the lecture. Seating is limited and first come, first serve. Reservations can be made online at https://alumni.kctcs.edu/e/hcc-breathitt-lecture-featuring-silas-house/. Teachers are welcome to bring their classes.
A ticketed fundraising event, An Evening with Silas House, will be hosted by the Hopkinsville Community College Foundation with Planters Bank as the presenting sponsor. The event will be held on Thursday, March 20th on campus in the Emerging Technologies Building beginning with a book signing at 5:30pm – 6:00pm, followed by a 6:00pm – 7:00pm social hour with live music and heavy hors d’oeuvres, and finally welcome remarks and an artist discussion with Silas House moderated by Gwenda Motley at 7:00pm – 8:00pm.
Additional corporate and table sponsorships are available with a variety of benefits. Single tickets can also be reserved for $100.00. Call HCC’s Advancement office at 270.707.3733 or email patricia.hinton@kctcs.edu for full details and reservations. All proceeds benefit Hopkinsville Community College students.
Silas House
Silas House is the nationally bestselling author of the 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, Southernmost (June 2018), and Lark Ascending (September 2022), as well as a book of creative nonfiction Something’s Rising, co-authored with Jason Howard, 2009; and three plays. Lark Ascending, a novel set in the near future about a young Appalachian man walking across Ireland with a dog and a mysterious woman after an environmental catastrophe.
The novel was a SIBA bestseller and has also been chosen as a Booklist Editor’s Choice, one of Salon’s favorite books of the year, one of Garden and Gun’s selections for Best Southern Books of 2022, and as a top ten most recommended book by independent booksellers across the entire nation in the monthly Indie Next List.
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. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the recipient of three honorary doctorates, and is the winner of the Nautilus Award, an EB White Award, the Appalachian Book of the Year, the Storylines Prize from the New York Public Library/NAV Foundation, the Lee Smith Award, and many other honors, including an invitation to read at the Library of Congress.
Southernmost was a longest finalist for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and appeared on several Best of 2018 lists including The Advocate, Booklist, Paste, Southern Living, Garden and Gun, and others. The book was given the Weatherford Award as well as the Judy Gaines Young Award.
House was an executive producer and one of the subjects of the documentary Hillbilly, which is now available on Hulu. The film won the Audience Award from the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Media Award from the Foreign Press Association. As a music journalist House has worked with artists such as Kacey Musgraves, Kris Kristofferson, Lucinda Williams, Jason Isbell, Senora May, Leann Womack, Charley Crockett, John R. Miller, and many others.
House is also host of the popular podcast “On the Porch”. In 2021 he was the recipient of the Governor’s Award from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear for his service to the arts in his home state. Most recently, Silas House has been awarded the 2023 Southern Book Prize in Fiction for his novel, Lark Ascending.
House was chosen for the Duggins Prize, the largest award for an LGBT writer in the nation, and in 2020 he was chosen as the Appalachian of the Year in a nationwide poll and given the Artist Award by Governor Andy Beshear as part of the Governor’s Awards in the Arts. House serves as the NEH Chair of Appalachian Studies at Berea College, on the fiction faculty at the Naslund-Mann School of Creative Writing at Spalding University in Louisville, and as a series editor for Fireside Industries at the University Press of Kentucky.
He is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University and Spalding University. House, a native of Whitley County and Laurel County, Kentucky, now lives in Lexington.
About the Hopkinsville Community College
For many Pennyrile Kentucky region and Fort Campbell residents, higher education begins at Hopkinsville Community College (HCC). The college serves thousands of area residents each year as a comprehensive regional learning center providing academic and technical associate degrees; diploma and certificate programs in occupational fields; pre-baccalaureate education; adult, continuing and developmental education; customized training for business and industry; and distance learning.
As part of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, HCC is a critical component to transforming the region’s economy by providing citizens with the education and training needed for high growth, high wage careers.
For more information, visit Hopkinsville.kctcs.edu. HCC is an equal opportunity employer and education institution.
