Award winning author Silas House featured in Southeastern's ‘Common Read’ program
Contact: Rene Abadie
Date: March 19, 2013
Photo credit: Cyndi Williams
HAMMOND – Award-winning writer Silas House, author of the novel "Eli the Good," will visit
Southeastern Louisiana University March 25 as part of the institution's annual Common
Read program.
Sponsored by the Department of English and the Southeastern Writing Center, Common
Read provides students and community members the opportunity to read and then meet
an important contemporary author.
The author of five books, three plays and a creative non-fiction book, House's
work has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. In addition, he has been
published in numerous journals and magazines, including Newsday, Oxford American,
and Louisville Review.
Events that day include student presentations on the author's work at 9:30 a.m.,
an 11 a.m. question and answer session with House, and a 7 p.m. public reading, book
signing and reception. All events are open to the public and will be held in the Student
Union Theatre.
"For almost every semester for five years, we've sponsored a Common Read, and
each author's visit has proved a landmark experience for our students," said Department
of English Head David Hanson. "By meeting and talking with an author that they're
studying intensively in class, students gain a rare opportunity to see into the life
of writing. We choose our Common Reads based on the high quality of the literature,
the likelihood that students will find the themes meaningful, and the authors' reputation
for accessibility and good teaching."
Published in 2009, "Eli the Good" centers on a post-Vietnam War 1976 summer when
family secrets are revealed that forever change the life of its 10-year-old protagonist.
The novel received the first annual Storylines Prize from the New York Public Library
System.
A native of Kentucky, which serves as the setting for his first three novels,
House has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, has won the Kentucky Novel of the
Year, and has been named Appalachian Writer of the Year. He served as writer-in-residence
at Eastern Kentucky University and Lincoln Memorial University, where he directed
the Mountain heritage Literary Festival. House serves on the fiction faculty of Spalding
University.
