FRANKFORT, Ky. (April 24, 2023) – Today, Gov. Andy Beshear appointed Whitley County native and award-winning author Silas House as the 2023-24 Kentucky Poet Laureate. The announcement was part of the Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Writers’ Day event hosted in the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort.
“We are so proud of Silas, who grew up in Kentucky, was educated in Kentucky and now represents our state with such pride,” Gov. Beshear said. “Our commonwealth is fortunate to have him here teaching our future writers and now serving as our literary ambassador to the world.”
House is a nationally bestselling author of the novels “Clay’s Quilt,” “A Parchment of Leaves,” “The Coal Tattoo” and “Eli the Good.” In 2012, he co-authored “Same Sun Here” with Neela Vaswani. House’s most recent novel, “Lark Ascending,” was published in 2022.
Among his many awards are the Nautilus Award, an E.B. White Award, Appalachian Book of the Year, the New York Public Library and NAV Foundation’s Storyline Prize and the Lee Smith Award. House has been invited to read at the Library of Congress. In 2018, his novel “Southernmost” was long listed for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. In 2020, House received the Governor’s Awards in the Arts Artist Award from Gov. Beshear.
“No wonder Kentucky has produced such a rich literary tradition – we are a complicated, complex people who have many different ways of being and thinking,” said House. “That diversity of thought is what makes us a commonwealth. My hope as poet laureate is to find more ways to unite us. Art brings us together in the same ways that food does, and in Kentucky, we appreciate good food and good art, whether it’s literature, music, paintings, dance and many other disciplines.”
Kentucky Writers’ Day is an annual celebration on or about April 24, which is the birthday of Kentucky writer Robert Penn Warren, the first United States Poet Laureate. The Writers’ Day celebration was established in 1990, and poets laureate are inducted in odd-numbered years.
The Kentucky Arts Council administers both Kentucky Writers’ Day and the Kentucky Poet Laureate nomination process.
“Kentucky is fortunate to lay claim to scores of great writers with a rich literary legacy,” said Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet Secretary Lindy Casebier. “Silas House has never strayed too far from his Whitley County roots. He is a powerful advocate for the environment, our rural citizens and their communities and the basic principle of fairness. He is such a gifted individual, and we are proud to welcome him as the 2023-24 Kentucky Poet Laureate.”
The annual ceremony also featured readings by 2021-22 poet laureate Crystal Wilkinson and a recitation by Allen County-Scottsville High School student Sarah Gamble, who serves as this year’s Kentucky Poetry Out Loud state champion.
Following the Writer’s Day event, to celebrate, the Kentucky Arts Council is hosting an event at Paul Sawyier Public Library in Frankfort at 2:30 pm. The event will feature readings by House, Wilkinson, and former poets laureate Richard Taylor, Joe Survant, Sena Jeter Naslund, Maureen Morehead, Frank X Walker, George Ella Lyon and Jeff Worley. The event is free and open to the public.
To view photos from the ceremony, click here.
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