Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House will be the featured speaker for two events on March 20 to help commemorate the 60th anniversary of Hopkinsville Community College.
House will speak first at The Breathitt Lecture slated at noon in the Riley Lecture Hall at HCC’s Auditorium Building. He will discuss his literary works and have a brief book signing after the lecture, according to a press release from the college.
The Breathitt Lecture is free — with limited seating on a first-come basis. Teachers are invited to bring their classes. Reservations may be made online.
HCC established the Breathitt speaker’s series in 2016 to recognize the life and work of Hopkinsville native Edward T. “Ned” Breathitt, an attorney who served as Kentucky’s governor 1963 to 1967. HCC opened during his term in office.
The second event, “An Evening with Silas House,” is a ticketed fundraiser at HCC’s Emerging Technologies Building.
The evening will begin with a book signing at 5:30 p.m., followed by a social hour with music and heavy hors d’oeuvres from 6 to 7 p.m. A discussion with House, moderated by Gwenda Motley, of Hopkinsville, will begin at 7 p.m.
Tickets for the evening program are $100 per person and can be reserved by calling the HCC Advancement Office at 270-707-3733. Additional corporate and table sponsorships are available by contacting the college.
Planters Bank is the presenting sponsor for both of House’s speaking engagements.
House, a bestselling novelist, is the author of “Clay’s Quilt,” “A Parchment of Leaves,” “The Coal Tattoo,” “Eli the Good,” “Southernmost” and “Lark Ascending.”
He has received numerous literary awards, including the 2023 Southern Book Prize in Fiction for “Lark Ascending,” a novel about a young Appalachian man walking across Ireland with a dog and a mysterious woman following an environmental catastrophe.
House was among three Kentucky writers, along with Wendell Berry and Crystal Wilkinson, who eulogized Hopkinsville native bell hooks (sister of Gwenda Motley) at her memorial service in 2022 at the Alhambra Theatre.
Other awards House has received include Appalachian of the Year in 2020 and the Duggins Prize, which is given to LGBTQ-identified authors with a strong body of work.
House grew up in Whitley and Laurel counties and now lives in Lexington. He serves as the National Endowment for the Humanities chair of Appalachian Studies at Berea College and is a member of the fiction faculty at the Naslund-Mann School of Creative Writing at Spalding University in Louisville.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
