"Those Who Carry Us"

18 December 2023: Finally listened to Silas House's wonderful poem, read aloud at the Kentucky Governor's inauguration. Like all things Silas writes, it's specific and universal and celebrates humanity while making us want to be even better.

"Neon Moon"

20 January 2022: "Everyone is just enjoying the song and each other. The big silver disco ball hanging from the middle of the ceiling is sending magic glints over all of them, and Joel feels like they’re part of the night sky. The woman is singing There’s always room here for the lonely over a pedal steel and a synthesizer, and his feet are moving right in time." --Silas House, "Neon Moon"

I've been a fan of that old Brooks and Dunn song for a long time--its yearning, its melancholic beauty. So I knew I had to read Silas House's story. I actually read it last night, but it's been on my mind all day, aided by me listening to the playlist he posted to accompany it. The way he uses the Kacey Musgraves cover is just so smart and subtle: it's the same song, a couple decades later, with a different singer and a different beat. It's like the character of Fox, not a copy of his great-uncle, but a kind of echo that makes the original its own. And that song brings them together on the dance floor. Amazing. 

First day...

23 August 2021: Taught three good classes today. Held office hours. Attended a college meeting. Went to an event on campus tonight and heard the amazing Silas House read. All of that was good. 

The hallways were noticeably louder and more crowded than the last two semesters and it's clear that there are so many more people on campus. That's great. And that's unsettling. 

I came home to find Bing struggling with some congestion and not really eating. There isn't too much to say/write about it. I feel quiet about it, if that makes any sense. Just want to watch and see and do right by him. We'll see what tomorrow brings, but I am ready to bring him to the emergency vet if/when I need to. (Got an appointment at the regular vet for Friday, the soonest they can see him.)

Five Things Podcast

"That really had a profound impact on who I am in a big way because I constantly saw my mother doing social justice work as a lunch lady and I saw all of those cafeteria workers doing that because, you know, there was need in our community and there was injustice and things like that. And I saw those women right a lot of those wrongs. I saw my mother pay for children's lunches and I saw ladies slip them extra rolls or whatever, but doing it in a way that was never self-congratulatory or shaming or anything. So often, since then, in my own role in social justice movements, people have asked me 'What's the first act of social justice you ever saw?' and that was definitely in the lunch room." --Silas House, in a lovely interview on the Five Things podcast, talking about his mother's work as a lunch lady in his elementary school.

I met House back when he first visited Shepherd and kind of instantly fell for the guy. I mean, not in a romantic way, but in a "he is so amazing/wish he was my friend" kind of way. And this was after I had already fallen hard for his books.What he does in this interview encapsulates so much of what makes him compelling and admirable and makes his voice such an important one. Look at what he does there by linking lunch ladies with social justice: he takes working-class women and connects their basic decency and compassion--and their every day interaction with real people--with a term that the right-wing has vilified. Because what these women did was social justice. Because social justice is a good and (duh) just thing. 

This interview is so charming--the perfect companion for my morning walk. And what a cool concept for a podcast.

Links...

It's Writer-in-Residence week here at Shepherd and I've got major assignments due in every one of my classes. And my parents are coming this weekend. So long story short, I have just about zero time for anything else, but I did want to just post a few interesting links:

1) Oprah will reunite the cast of The Sound of Music. I love love love this! The Sound of Music is my sentimental favorite movie. I even like reading/grading to the soundtrack. Can't wait!

2) Maybe lots of people knew about this, but somehow yesterday I stumbled across this old (1950) Time magazine article. Kind of mind-boggling to think of Congress policing Hollywood morality. Actually, I am sure plenty self-righteous folks in Congress today would think this is a good idea. By the way, my mom was named after Ingrid Bergman, but she was born before this scandal. I wonder if my grandparents would have made the same decision post-scandal.

3) Lots of folks are talking about this piece: "Tragedy at the Virginia Quarterly Review."

4) Some good people got arrested for non-violent protests against mountain-top removal earlier this week, including Jason Howard, who I met last year when he visited Shepherd with Silas House.(In the photo, Jason is the first person on the left, and Silas is the third.) Thoreau would be proud of them. And so am I.

5) Someone needs to see this movie with me. I'll pay. I'll even buy you popcorn AND candy AND a soda. And I don't even do that for my niece when I take her to the movies. Seriously, this thing looks like so much fun.

6) "When Your Infant is Secretly Famous in Japan." To quote South Park, "Simpsons already did it!"



7) And yeah, this O'Keefe dude is a total douche. And a pervert, too. Loser.

Two quick links: Appalachian writers taking on Big Coal

These are already a bit old, but worth posting:

1) Wendell Berry pulls his personal papers from UK over the University's relationship to the coal industry.

2) Silas House takes on an absurd, infantile, sexist attack on Ashley Judd over MTR.

Seems like a good place to include a Berry poem...how about this one?

"The Peace of Wild Things"

Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

(via the Poetry Foundation) 

Hmm...and let's give Silas a shout-out, too: consider buying a copy of The Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Volume II, featuring a new and very moving short story by House, "Recruiters."

Out of class early, so how about some quick link-dumping?

I've got ten minutes until my next class, so let me clean out my bookmarks a bit and share some fun links with you.

1) From back in November, some current writers (including Silas House and Jill McCorkle) talk about their first books.

2) From I don't know where, but I love it (click to make it bigger). I am teaching John Smith's writings on Friday and might just have to bring this to class.


3) From the New York Times Magazine (very impressive, no?), check out "Going Cyborg," by my friend and fellow UNCG alum, Jillian Weise.

4) Finally, from Insidehighered.com, an interesting column about the murder of Indiana University professor Don Belton.

Okay--I need to stop myself! Off to class I go!

One more on Silas House...

...take a listen to this radio interview with House in which he discusses Eli the Good and other works.

Silas House at Shepherd, Pictures

Some pictures from Silas House's visit to Shepherd...


The Sigma Tau Delta students, who hosted Thursday night's keynote event, posing before anyone showed up.


Some of them wanted to take a "funny" picture. The rest just acted normal. This is the result.


Dr. Shurbutt giving Silas the 2009 Appalachian Heritage Award. The plaque has this wonderful quotation from Clay's Quilt: "He had spent his whole life listening to stories from the past, and now he had his own, and it was slowly building, chapter by chapter."


Silas talking about the winning story from the West Virginia Fiction Writer's competition. It works like this: a panel of judges (including yours truly) narrows the pool down to about 10 stories and then the writer-in-residence picks the winner and two runner ups. This year's winning story, "Ruined Water" by Natalie Sypolt, is an amazing story.


Silas giving his keynote, "The History of Every Country."


Silas answering questions.


More questions.

Another question, this time from the President herself.


After the event, Silas posed for a picture with the STD students.

Silas House at Shepherd

September 28 to October 4 marked Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence week here at Shepherd and this year's writer, Silas House, certainly left a positive impression on everyone here. I've been saying for a while now that I am going to get around to writing a long post on House's novels, but there just hasn't been time. I don't think that's just a stall on my part: his stuff is so good that I don't want to rush through it--and I don't think a few blog posts will do him justice. Seriously--he's that good. And don't just ask me--ask anyone who has been lucky enough to read A Parchment of Leaves, Clay's Quilt, or The Coal Tattoo. They are simply amazing books. Silas' texts embody just about everything wonderful about Appalachian literature but also remind me a lot of the Transcendentalist texts of the nineteenth century.

We read Parchment in my English 204 classes and out of 100 students in those three sections, I didn't hear a single "why did we have to read this?" at the end of our discussions. In fact, many students said something like, "I don't like reading [they say this to their English teachers all the time!], but this I really liked."

Anyway, I thought I might just paste in my opening remarks from the "Writing Life" event, held on Wednesday, September 30. (Yes, I was lucky enough to get to introduce Silas, who told me, "You can introduce me anywhere" when I got done. Swoon!) I'll admit that the text reads a bit hokey, but it was the best I could do during that extra busy week.

Welcome to tonight’s Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence event, “The Writing Life” with Silas House. We are in for a treat tonight. First, though, I’d like to thank the Shepherd University Foundation, the Friends of the Shepherdstown Public Library, and the West Virginia Humanities Council for sponsoring this event.

I picked up my first Silas House novel in May of 2008—Memorial Day weekend. The book was A Parchment of Leaves. It was a lovely day—the windows were open, a sweet breeze blew in, birds sang outside. I opened that book in the early afternoon and before I knew it, it has grown dark outside, singing birds replaced by singing crickets. And if you’ve read Parchment, you know how appropriate that setting was. And I read on and on and on. Eventually, I took a break, but got right back to that book the next day and finished it that next night. I was, simply put, captured by this book—moved by it, exhilarated by it, and wanted to read more. Since that time, I will confess: I can’t read enough Silas House and continue to be thrilled by his words.

Last November, I saw Silas read at the South Atlantic Modern Languages Association conference in Louisville, Kentucky. I sat in the back and just listened as he talked about his craft. This is a man who knows what it means to be a writer. Again, we are in for a treat tonight, folks.

At that reading in Louisville, Silas spoke of the best piece of writing advice he’s every received, from the great Appalachian writer James Still: “Discover something new every day.” If you’ve read any of his books, it’s easy to see how closely Silas House has followed this advice, how he makes his readers see the new, the interesting, and the beautiful in the everyday: the way he careful writes of his characters singing, dancing, cooking, or just sitting silently with each other. The way he lovingly creates the landscapes he knows so well. The way he writes about what it means to be alive in the world. Anyone interested in writing—or in reading great writing—will benefit from hearing Silas House talk about his craft and about “The Writing Life.” So it gives me great pleasure to introduce Silas House.

Consider this your introduction to Silas House and pick up one of his books. You will not be disappointed. I picked up a copy of Eli the Good at one of the events and can't wait to get into it. Also on my wish-list, Something's Rising, a collection about mountain-top removal that Silas and some other writers (including Jason Howard, who I also met--he's terrific!) put together.

Some more quick and completely random links...

1) More Jane Austen/science-fiction cross-overs.

2) The sometimes depressing, sometimes hilarious, almost always interesting "F*** My Life" blog.

3) "The Dirty Lie": a website all about the myth of clean coal. This topic will be on my mind a lot more in the coming months as we prepare to host Silas House as our Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence next fall. House is a big opponent of mountain-top removal. (I've been meaning to write a long post on my love for House's books for months now...I'll get to it someday. I promise!)