Author Vic Sizemore Selected as 2026 Paul Meek Literary Legacy Series Speaker

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 UTM’s Young Writers’ Conference. The author will provide a public presentation about his work at 6:00pm on Thursday, November 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.

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 is currently at work on a literary science fiction novel to be released in 2028. 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 of 2028. It will be the inaugural title in their House of Kel imprint. He 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. The November 12 event is open to the public and will be held in the Special Collections reading room. A livestream of this presentation will be recorded and available at this site for later playback. Light refreshments will be served.

Free parking for the event will be in the Paul Meek Library parking lot at 10 Wayne Fisher Drive off Mt. 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.

Link to Runway event listing for this event: https://runway.utm.edu/event/12771657

Link to event livestream and recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/amKKhjQhjjo