Local writers report that ‘Something’s Rising’

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March 30, 2009

Anonymous The Times-Tribune Mon Mar 30, 2009, 10:59 AM EDT

Times-Tribune Staff Report

Local writers Silas House and Jason Howard have collaborated on a new nonfiction book, “Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal,” that includes testimonies of citizens in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia who are fighting the controversial form of surface mining.

House and Howard’s book includes interviews of 12 diverse people, ranging from activists known across Appalachia, such as Jean Ritchie and Kathy Mattea, to less well-known individuals who are fighting within their communities, such as Larry Bush and Judy Bonds. Each account is prefaced with a biographical essay that establishes the interview settings and the subjects’ connections to their region.

House, of Lily, is the bestselling novelist of “Clay’s Quilt,” “A Parchment of Leaves” and “The Coal Tattoo.” His nonfiction has been published in “Newsday,” “Sierra,” “The Oxford American,” “No Depression” and elsewhere.

“Something’s Rising” is his first full-length book of nonfiction.

“I was trained as a journalist long before I ever studied any kind of creative writing, so part of me has always identified as a journalist, as someone seeking the truth,” House said of his nonfiction writing. “So the transition wasn’t hard; in many ways I felt like this was the book I had been waiting to write for years, ever since I was a journalist back in college.”

Howard, formerly of London, Ky., is the editor of “We All Live Downstream” and has written for such publications as “Equal Justice Magazine,” “Paste,” “Kentucky Living,” The Times-Tribune and many others. He and House met at the Hindman Settlement School’s Appalachian Writers Workshop.

“It was quickly obvious that we had many common goals about the kind of work we wanted to do for and with our people in Appalachia,” Howard said. “We both have similar goals and beliefs about the way writing can change people, and we both believe in the power of stories and language.”

Howard is a graduate of George Washington University and lives in Eastern Kentucky, where he was born and raised.

In 2008, House won the Helen Lewis Award for Community Service for his efforts to raise awareness about mountaintop removal. He teaches at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.

“Both Jason and I have always had a love/hate relationship with coal mining,” House said. “We’re both from coal mining families, and we’re both really proud of that. So we’ve both been aware of the increasing threat of mountaintop removal for awhile now. But I first got really involved in 2005 when Wendell Berry invited all of Kentucky’s writers to go on a tour of MTR sites. That trip changed my life. Once you’ve seen it up close like that, and had people look you right in the eye and tell you their stories about the way it is destroying their lives, you can’t turn away.”

The book comes out April 17 through University of Kentucky Press and sells for $27.95.

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