Award-winning novelist Vic Sizemore has been selected as the 2026 speaker in the Paul Meek Literary Legacy Speaker Series and will visit the UT Martin campus to meet with students and participate in the university’s Young Writers Conference.
The author will provide a public presentation about his work at 6 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 12, in the Special Collections reading room in the Paul Meek Library. Copies of his books will be available for purchase and the author’s signature. The event is open to the public.
Sizemore, who teaches at Pellissippi State Community College near Knoxville, is the author of the 2025 Tennessee Book Award-winning novel “God of River Mud” as well as an essay collection (“Goodbye, My Tribe”) and a short-story collection (“I Love You I’m Leaving”). He has also published nonfiction pieces in Story Quarterly, North American Review, Southern Humanities Review and other journals.
Sizemore’s literary science fiction novel “The Unborn Simone Gordon” is forthcoming from Regal House Publishing in spring 2028. It will be the inaugural title in their House of Kel imprint. Sizemore lives in the foothills of Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains.
Sizemore’s visit is supported by funds endowed by the family and descendants of Paul Meek, UT Martin’s chancellor from 1934 to 1967. Light refreshments will be served.
Parking for the event will be in the Paul Meek Library parking lot at 10 Wayne Fisher Drive off Mount Pelia Road. Further information and the livestream link may be found on the library’s Runway event page or by contacting the library at 731-881-7065.
