By Kevin Murphy Wilson
Silas House currently serves as the Commonwealth’s Poet Laureate. He is the bestselling author of the novels—Clay’s Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves, The Coal Tattoo, Eli the Good, Same Sun Here (co-authored with Neela Vaswani), Southernmost, and Lark Ascending—as well as one book of creative nonfiction and three plays. House is also a former commentator for NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and his writing has appeared in Time, The Atlantic, Ecotone, The Advocate, Garden and Gun, and Oxford American. We recently chatted with House about his storied career and his upcoming slot as a panelist during Festival of Faiths. The 2024 conference is once againco-chaired by Owsley Brown III and Adria Johnson and runs November 13-16 at Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville.
VT: Can you tell us a little bit about your family background, education, and early influences as a writer?
SH: “I was raised in a working class family in Southeastern Kentucky and was encouraged by my family and community to follow my dream of becoming a writer. I was fortunate to have great teachers in the publicschool system who gave me a remarkable foundation. The first big influence for me was actually via a tv show--John Boy Walton on ‘The Waltons’ was the only other boy I knew who wanted to be a writer, and he was from a rural place, too, so seeing him made me feel less alone. I read a lot of Stephen King growing up but eventually I found writers like Lee Smith, Barbara Kingsolver, and others who were writing about my place in the world and giving me more permission to do that, too.”
VT: What was the role of religion in your life? Is your outlook informed by any particular spiritual or philosophical belief system?
SH: “I was raised in a very strict religious sect which my parents have since left. I left it when I was 17 and for many years I searched for a congregation that I felt was accepting and open-minded and service-oriented. I eventually landed in the Episcopal Church and feel very at home there. But for those years ‘in the wilderness’ I kept my faith alive through the natural world, by fighting for the environment in social justice movements, and by many different kinds of art: novels, poems, music. I identify strongly as a Humanist.”
VT: Why do you think public gatherings like the Festival of Faiths are important?
SH: “Well, for one thing I think that Christianity has been hijacked by a very vocal minority who weaponize religion for politics rather than using it to serve others and to love others.The Festival of Faiths shows that people of faith are more complex than that and that many of us simply seek to serve others and put love into the world instead of judgment. And to me, the arts are always a way to get better in touch with my belief system and the God of My Understanding, so the way the Festival of Faiths puts the arts front and center is important to me, too.”
VT: What does your particular session involve?
SH: “I’ll be talking about where my inspirations for creativity come from and in particular how the secular arts--particularly work by Marilynne Robinson, Alice Walker, and others--have been a gateway to sustaining my faith.”
VT: Can you speak to the overlap between the work of an author and an activist?
SH: “For me, being a writer is an act of protest because I am always writing about what troubles me. Ever since I was a little boy I have been very aware of injustices and have always wanted to be involved in correcting them in any way I can. For me it has mostly been by writing about it. In my writing I always want social issues to be in the background and for the main focus to be on the human story, in the foreground. But as an activist I focus on those social issues front and center. So there are two ways of going about it, because there are many ways to fight back. Art is definitely the main one for me.”
VT: When and how did you become immersed in music journalism? Looking back, which interviews are you most proud of?
SH: “When my first novel came out it got attention for having a lot of musical references and this led an editor at No Depression, which is the major magazine of Americana music, to ask me to do a feature on Lucinda Williams. I enjoyed doing that so much that I’ve been doing it ever since and I was lucky that that feature got a lot of attention and led to other assignments. It was pretty amazing to work with Kris Kristofferson, and he was such a kind, patient subject. Last year I wrote a long piece on the new singer-songwriter S.G. Goodman that I think is one of my best pieces of writing. Also last year I did a piece on Jason Isbell for Time that I’m pretty proud of. I’ve been lucky to get to interview really interesting and articulate people like Kacey Musgraves, Tyler Childers, and others.”
VT: You were even nominated for a Grammy Award this year. How did that project come about?
SH: “Tyler [Childers] asked me if I would write the video for his song ‘In Your Love’ and his only stipulation is that it had to be a gay love story. He wanted to make a video for all the LGBTQ people who love country music but never see themselves there. So that’s what we did. He was very generous to give me complete creative control, so I cast it, I made the show bible (this includes guiding photos of how sets and costumes should look, etc.), I was on set the whole time. And I’m really proud of what we did, especially highlighting that LGBTQ people do live in rural places, and always have.”
VT: You’re also rumored to be involved in a major film adaptation of your work. Is there anything you can share about that process?
SH: “Well, I love the script that was written by Tim Kirkman, and I love the casting that has happened so far. The whole process moves at a snail’s pace but I’m hopeful that they will start filming soon.”
VT: Do you think the literary and broader arts scene here in Kentucky has afforded you more freedom for exploration and collaboration than other places might?
SH: “I think that artists within Kentucky are certainly bonded and in touch in a way that people in other places are not as much. We have a shorthand with each other, we support each other, we are actually together quite a lot and we like each other and are inspired by each other. So that’s a wonderful thing to be a part of because some artistic circles can be cut-throat. I have not experienced that at all among Kentucky writers and musicians.”
VT: Speaking of Kentucky writers and musicians…and apropos of nothing really…who do you think was more famous: Ed McClanahan or J.D. Crowe?
SH: “That’s a hard question but I guess I’d have to say Crowe since he was famous for a longer period of time, about 70 years, from the 1950s until the 2020s. But personally, I knew Ed and he was always so kind to me. Always a smile on his face, always telling a great story.”
VT: The world seems stranger than ever. In this day and age, and at this point in your career, how do you measure success?
SH: “Success for me is being healthy and being loved and loving others. As long as the people I love are safe and healthy then little else really matters.”
VT: So, what comes next for you?
SH: “I’m working on a big canvas, multi-POV love story set in Eastern Kentucky, Louisville, Lexington, and New York City that takes place from the 1920s to the 1960s. It explores themes of desire and faith.”
For more information, visit www.festivaloffaiths.org.