Author Simon Van Booy Selected as 2024 Paul Meek Literary Legacy Series Speaker

Award-winning novelist Simon Van Booy has been selected as the 2024 speaker in the Paul Meek Literary Legacy Speakers Series. He will visit the UT Martin campus on Thursday, November 7, to meet with students, participate in the Young Writer’s Conference, and provide a public reading at 6:00pm in the Paul Meek Library. Copies of his books will be available for purchase and for the author’s signature.

Simon Van Booy is the bestselling author of more than a dozen books for adults and children, including The Illusion of Separateness and The Presence of Absence. His recent novel, Sipsworth, explores how a chance encounter with a mouse changes the life of a grieving wife and mother. Simon is the editor of three volumes of philosophy and has written for The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, and the BBC. His books have been translated into many languages and optioned for film. Raised in rural North Wales, he currently lives in New York where he is also a book editor and a volunteer E.M.T. crew chief.

Simon Van Booy’s visit is supported by endowed funds donated by the Meek family in honor of Paul Meek, UT Martin’s chancellor from 1934 to 1967. The event at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 7, is open to the public and will be held in the north reading room of the Paul Meek Library.  The event is open to the public and a livestream of the presentation will be recorded and available at this site for later playback.  Light refreshments will be served.

Parking for the event will be in the Paul Meek Library parking lot on Wayne Fisher Drive off Mt. Pelia Road. Free parking permits are available at the UT Martin Public Safety website. Further information may be found on the Library’s Runway event page of by contacting Erik Nordberg, Dean of the Paul Meek Library, at 731-881-7070.