The University Press of Kentucky has launched Fox Hill Books, a literary imprint that will be edited by author Silas House. Fox Hill Books is dedicated to publishing "exceptional literature rooted in working-class experiences" and highlighting emerging voices and established writers "from both urban and rural Appalachia while remaining open to works from beyond the region that align with its mission," the press said. The imprint will publish short story collections, poetry, essays, and novels that offer "nuanced, authentic depictions of working-class and Appalachian communities, to expand public understanding and complexify the lives of those who are often reduced to stereotypes in mass media."
The imprint will publish four books a year. The first titles, appearing in Spring 2027, are Cannonball: Stories by Chelyen Davis, set in the mountains of contemporary Virginia, and Road to the Stars: Poems by James Long, a collection that traces one man's journey from a hippie childhood in the hills of West Virginia to a career in corporate banking.
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| Silas House | |
Silas House has published novels and poetry, and was Kentucky Poet Laureate from 2023 to 2025. In 2022, he received the Duggins Prize, a literary award for an LGBTQ writer. His work has appeared in the Atlantic, Time, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Bitter Southerner, and other publications. As series editor for Fireside Industries, House helped bring several books to publication, including Drowned Town by Jayne Moore Waldrop, Even As We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Daughters of Muscadine by Monic Ductan, and The Girl Singer by Marianne Worthington. House serves as the National Endowment for the Humanities Chair at Berea College and teaches on the fiction faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing.