|
Silas House
Silas Dwane House (born August 7, 1971) is an American writer best known for his novels. He is also a music journalist, environmental activist, and columnist. House's fiction is known for its attention to the natural world, working class characters, and the plight of the rural place and rural people. House is known as a representative for LGBTQ Appalachians and Southerners and is certainly among the most visible LGBTQ people associated with rural America. Early life and education House was born in Corbin, Kentucky and grew up in nearby rural Lily, Laurel County, Kentucky, but he also spent much of his childhood in nearby Leslie County, Kentucky, which he has cited as the basis for the fictional Crow County, which serves as the setting for his first three novels. He has degrees from Eastern Kentucky University (BA in English with emphasis on American literature), and from Spalding University (Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing). In 2000, House was chosen, along with since-pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurel County, Kentucky
Laurel County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 62,613. Its county seat is London. After a special election in January 2016 alcohol sales are permitted only in the city limits of London. The ordinance went into effect on March 27, 2016, 60 days after results of the election. Laurel County is included in the London, KY Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Laurel County, the 80th county to be organized in Kentucky, was established by an act of the general assembly, December 21, 1825, from parts of Rockcastle, Clay, Knox and Whitley Counties. Laurel County was named from the Laurel River, noted for dense laurel thickets along its banks. Laurel County was the location of the Battle of Wildcat Mountain, a pivotal yet little known battle during the American Civil War that kept Confederate armies from advancing on Big Hill, a major stronghold during the war. After a fire damaged the courthouse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern United States
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the Western United States, with the Midwestern and Northeastern United States to its north and the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico to its south. Historically, the South was defined as all states south of the 18th century Mason–Dixon line, the Ohio River, and 36°30′ parallel.The South . ''Britannica.com''. Retrieved June 5, 2021. Within the South are different , such as the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judy Gaines Young Book Award
The Judy Gaines Young Book Award is given annually by Transylvania University to honor the author of a book of distinction written in the Appalachian region in the previous two or three years. The award was endowed in 2015 by Dr. Byron Young, a Lexington-area professor and neurologist, in honor of his late wife. The program is currently coordinated by Transylvania Professor of English Martha Billips and Poet-in-Residence Maurice Manning. Winners * 2015 - Holly Goddard Jones for ''The Next Time You See Me'' * 2016 - Amy Greene for ''Long Man'' * 2017 - Crystal Wilkinson for ''The Birds of Opulence'' * 2018 - Kathleen Driskell for ''Next Door to the Dead'' * 2019 - Silas House for ''Southernmost'' * 2020 - Frank X Walker for ''Last Will, Last Testament'' Past Nominees 2015 * Ron Houchin for ''The Man Who Saws Us in Half'' * George Ella Lyon for ''Many-Storied House'' * Jeff Daniel Marion for ''Letters to the Dead'' * Allison Seay for ''To See the Queen'' * Lee Smith for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Crowther
Hal Crowther (born 1945) is an American journalist and essayist. Biography His essays have been published in many anthologies, including ''Novello: Ten Years of Great American Writing'' (2000). "Dealer's Choice," Crowther's column on southern letters and culture, has been featured in The ''Oxford American'' since 1994. He was executive editor for the ''Spectator'' in Raleigh, North Carolina from 1984 until 1989, and he has also been the film and drama critic for the ''Buffalo News'', media critic for ''Newsweek'', and writer for ''Time magazine''. Additionally, Crowther has written for The Humanist and Free Inquiry magazines. He has also been a regular contributor to the book pages of The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution''. Education He is a graduate of Williams College, where he was sports editor of the Williams Record, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Family He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina with his wife, novelist Lee Smith. Awards In 1992 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lee Smith (fiction Author)
Lee Smith (born November 1, 1944) is an American fiction author who typically incorporates much of her background from the Southeastern United States in her works. She has received writing awards, such as the O. Henry Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction, the North Carolina Award for Literature, and, in April 2013, was the first recipient of Mercer University's Sidney Lanier Prize for Southern Literature. Her novel ''The Last Girls'' was listed on the ''New York Times'' bestseller's list and won the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. ''Mrs Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger'', a collection of new and selected stories, was published in 2010. Early life and education Smith was born in 1944 in Grundy, Virginia, a small coal-mining town in the Appalachian Mountains, less than 10 miles from the Kentucky border. The Smith home sat on Main Street, and the Levisa Fork River ran just behind it. Her mother, Gig, was a college graduate who had come to Grundy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for '' The Good War'' and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago. Early life Terkel was born to Russian Jewish immigrants, Samuel Terkel, a tailor, and Anna (Annie) Finkel, a seamstress, in New York City. At the age of eight, he moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois, where he spent most of his life. He had two brothers, Meyer (1905–1958) and Ben (1907–1965). He attended McKinley High School. From 1926 to 1936, his parents ran a rooming house that also served as a meeting place for people from all walks of life. Terkel credited his understanding of humanity and social interaction to the tenants and visitors who gathered in the lobby there and the people who congregated in nearby Bughouse Square. In 1939, he mar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julia Bonds
Julia "Judy" Belle Thompson Bonds (August 27, 1952 – January 3, 2011) was an organizer and activist from the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, United States. Raised in a family of coalminers, she worked from an early age at minimum wage jobs. Bonds was the director of Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW). She has been called "the godmother of the anti-mountaintop removal movement." Environmental activism Much of her organizing activity focused on the role of the mine operator Massey Energy of Richmond, Virginia and the devastation in Coal River Valley's Marfork Hollow as well as other communities in Appalachia. Bonds testified against the company at regulatory hearings, filed lawsuits against surface mining and led protests against Massey. By 2003, she had led the CRMW into a partnership with the United Mine Workers Union to halt mining companies' dangerous use of overweight coal trucks and to convince the state's mining oversight agency to better protect valley communities ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denise Giardina
Denise Giardina is an American novelist. Her book '' Storming Heaven'' was a Discovery Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and received the 1987 W. D. Weatherford Award for the best published work about the Appalachian South. '' The Unquiet Earth'' received an American Book Award and the Lillian Smith Book Award for fiction. Her 1998 novel '' Saints and Villains'' was awarded the Boston Book Review fiction prize and was semifinalist for the International Dublin Literary Award. Giardina is an ordained Episcopal Church deacon, a community activist, and a former candidate for governor of West Virginia. Life Giardina was born October 25, 1951 in Bluefield, West Virginia, and grew up in the small coal mining camp of Black Wolf, located in rural McDowell County, West Virginia, and later in Kanawha County, where she graduated from high school. Like the rest of the community, her family's survival was dependent upon the prosperity of the mine. Giardina's grandfather and uncles wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathy Mattea
Kathleen Alice Mattea (born June 21, 1959) is an American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than 30 singles on the '' Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts, including four that reached No. 1: " Goin' Gone", " Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses", " Come from the Heart", and "Burnin' Old Memories", plus 12 more that charted within the top ten. She has released 14 studio albums, two Christmas albums, and one greatest hits album. Most of her material was recorded for Universal Music Group Nashville's Mercury Records Nashville division between 1984 and 2000, with later albums being issued on Narada Productions, her own Captain Potato label, and Sugar Hill Records. Among her albums, she has received five gold certifications and one platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She has collaborated with Dolly Parton, Michael McDonald, Tim O'Brien, and her husband, Jon Vezner. Mat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Ritchie
Jean Ruth Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk". In her youth she learned hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way (orally, from her family and community), many of which were Appalachian variants of centuries old British and Irish songs, including dozens of Child Ballads. In adulthood, she shared these songs with wide audiences, as well as writing some of her own songs using traditional foundations. She is ultimately responsible for the revival of the Appalachian dulcimer, the traditional instrument of her community, which she popularized by playing the instrument on her albums and writing tutorial books. She also spent time collecting folk music in the United States and in Britain and Ireland, in order to research the origins of her family songs and help preserve traditional music. She inspired a wide array of musicians, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wendell Berry
Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of ''The Gift of Good Land'' (1981) and ''The Unsettling of America'' (1977). His attention to the culture and economy of rural communities is also found in the novels and stories of Port William, such as ''A Place on Earth'' (1967), ''Jayber Crow'' (2000), and ''That Distant Land'' (2004). He is an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, a recipient of The National Humanities Medal, and the Jefferson Lecturer for 2012. He is also a 2013 Fellow of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences and, since 2014, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Berry was named the recipient of the 2013 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. On January 28, 2015, he became the first living writer to be inducted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955) is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. Her widely known works include '' The Poisonwood Bible'', the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and ''Animal, Vegetable, Miracle'', a non-fiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally. Her work often focuses on topics such as social justice, biodiversity and the interaction between humans and their communities and environments. Each of her books published since 1993 has been on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list. Kingsolver has received numerous awards, including the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award 2011, UK's Orange Prize for Fiction 2010, for '' The Lacuna'', and the National Humani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
