Eastern Kentucky native, writer and activist Silas House lives in Lexington

Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history — some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.

Silas House may be best known as an American author, but he’s also a music journalist, an environmental activist and served as Kentucky’s poet laureate.

House was born in Corbin on Aug. 7, 1971, and grew up in rural southeastern Kentucky. He graduated from Eastern Kentucky University, and has a master of fine arts in creative writing from Spalding University.

House was working as a mail carrier in 2000 when he was named one of the 10 emerging talents in the South by the Millennial Gathering of Writers at Vanderbilt University.

The next year he sold his first novel — “Clay’s Quilt,” a book about growing up in Appalachia, cyclical violence and the power to break that cycle. The book appeared on the New York Times bestseller list and found success across the South.

His later novels, “A Parchment of Leaves” in 2003, “The Coal Tattoo” in 2004, “Eli The Good” in 2009, “Southernmost” in 2018, and “Lark Ascending” in 2022, have all received critical acclaim, as has House. A nonfiction work, “Something’s Rising,” profiles anti-mountaintop removal activists from the Appalachian region.

He’s also a playwright, penning “The Hurting Part” in 2005, and an editor, acquiring and editing books for Fireside Industries, an imprint of the University Press of Kentucky, since 2021.

And he was a finalist for a Grammy in 2024 his work on Tyler Childers “In Your Love” music video, depicting the tragic love story between two gay coal miners. House posted on Instagram at the time that it was, to his knowledge, the first country music video to highlight a gay storyline released by a major label.

House said he wanted to “represent Appalachia in its full complexity,” and tell a story of people who live in Appalachia but have not before been represented on screen.

“There are all kinds of different people in Appalachia and rural America, and they very rarely see themselves in the media, in film or TV, or especially in country music videos,” House told the Herald-Leader when the music video was released.

House an advocate for LGBTQ+ Appalachians and Southerners, and is one of the most visible LGBTQ+ people associated with rural America.

For all his work, he’s been recognized across the country, but here in Lexington, where he now lives, he’s been given his own day.

Mayor Linda Gorton declared May 25 as Silas House Day in 2023. That same year, he was named Kentucky Poet Laureate by Gov. Andy Beshear, a role in which he helped promote literary arts and activities across the state.

Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com.