Tag: Burke’s Book Store

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Blurb Books

To Read, or Not to Read: October 2024

As the weather chills out or warms back up this October, there’s never a better time to curl up with a book because it’s always a good time to curl up with a book. And therein lies the issue, because even if I know when it’s a good time to read (always), how am I to know what to read? Enter decision paralysis — unless, of course, you check out the ever-reliable recommendations by your local booksellers that they’ve so kindly suggested here. And we thank them for it. 

William by Mason Coile

The perfect single sitting horror story! There’s no slow ramp up to this book. The story immediately takes off with a lil sci-fi, a lil gore, a lil pulse-racing thriller, and an incredible ending! This is a book I wish I could read again for the first time! — Mandy Martin, Novel

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

In a world where we have access to an endless sinkhole of content to consume, the peril of endless possibilities can be daunting. The Husbands explores these ideas in a brilliant, snappy and comical way. 

Lauren comes home one night to find her husband waiting for her. The only problem is she doesn’t actually have a husband. However, she does find that she has a magical attic that holds infinite husbands. When one husband goes up the attic stairs, he is replaced with another husband and a respective life to boot. Lauren is amazed by the endless options at her fingertips, as time passes she starts sending the husbands up for more and more trivial reasons. Why? Because she can! What could go wrong? Well, maybe a lot. This book had me laughing out loud while also contemplating the modern world in bold new ways. I highly recommend this novel for something as thought-provoking as it is also fresh, eccentric, relatable, daring, and juicy. — Lillian Khattab, Novel

Over the Influence: A Memoir by JoJo

The hit-singer of “Leave (Get Out)” has released her breathtakingly candid memoir. Signed to a major recording deal at just 12 years old, JoJo catapulted to the top of the pop- and R&B-infused charts in the mid-2000s and experienced her share of highs and lows. This memoir is perfect for any millennial or Gen-Zer interested in hearing her story. — Jeremee DeMoir, DeMoir Books & Things

Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I’d Known by George M Johnson

Flamboyants is a collection of 14 essays wherein Johnson reveals how American culture has been shaped by icons who are both Black and Queer — and whose stories deserve to be celebrated in their entirety. — Jeremee DeMoir, DeMoir Books & Things

Playground by Richard Powers

Richard Powers writes books that are both entertaining and important. He comes to bring us a sense of wonder. In Playground, he does for oceans what he did for forests in The Overstory. He takes four disparate lives and tells their stories, which tie together in a breathtaking and perfectly timed dance of science, humanity, and awe. He does what only the truest artists can do: He makes you see the world anew. — Corey Mesler, Burke’s Book Store

Horror recommendations for when you don’t know what to read or are just now getting into horror 

  1. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: a classic gothic short story about a woman going insane that will leave you uneasy: 
  2. The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker: an early splatter punk with a demonic puzzle box and a classic horror adaptation to go along with it
  3. Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist: a Swedish vampire novel about two young outcasts that will actually scare you 
  4. Blood on the Tracks by Shuzo Oshimi: a psychological manga about a son discovering the truth about his mother while spiraling downward: 
  5. Never read Stephen King? Read Misery, a story of an author being cared for by his number-one fan after a lethal car crash 
  6. Gyo by Junji Ito: a sci-fi manga about the discovery of a foul stench and fish slowly crawling out of the ocean: 
  7. The Doll House Murders by Betty Ren Wright: a young adult novel about a young girl discovering a dark family secret when dolls start moving around at night 
  8. I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison: a short AI nightmare about the last nine people kept alive by an evil supercomputer named AM
  9. In the mood for a short story collection? Nightmare at 20,000 Feet or The Best of Richard Matheson
  10. Ring by Koji Suzuki: a disturbing ghost story about a father uncovering a cursed VHS tape while researching a series of unexplained deaths — Chloe Mesler, Burke’s Book Store

All books mentioned can be purchased at the respective bookstore locations or their websites as linked. For upcoming book events, including book clubs and author signings, visit the Flyer’s event calendar.

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We Recommend We Saw You

WE SAW YOU: Skol-astic Book Fair

Michael and Diana Townsend (Photos: Michael Donahue)

Guests could raise a glass and shout “Skol” to toast the Skol-astic Book Fair, which was held August 10th at Soul & Spirits Brewery.

People put their noses in beer and in books at the event, which featured “Lyric,” a brew made for the occasion. Ryan Allen, who owns the brewery with his wife, Blair Perry, describes it as “a farmhouse ale with Earl Grey tea.”

Brandon Lea and
Dominique Bonten
Blair Perry and Ryan Allen
Blake Helis and Cheryl Mesler

“We just do it for the book fair every year,” he says. “So, it’s really only available that day. This year I doubled the amount I made last year, and it still sold out in the same amount of time.

Jim and Taryn Spake
Lisa Kroger
Austin Sanchez and
Marisol Palomo

“We call it ‘Lyric’ because lyrics are the words of a song. It’s a way to tie in the theme of the book fair and being a wordsmith.”

Melissa Justice, DJ Reitzel, and Rian Taylor

Describing their event, Ryan says, “We invited all the bookstores in town. And this year, I think a little more uniquely, we invited individual authors that could come in and sit and speak with people and sell their books.”

They want people to “connect directly with the authors.”

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Blurb Books

Memphis Reads: August

This month your favorite booksellers are back with recommendations, so you can keep up with your summer reading. Check them out below.

Anything That Moves by Jamie Stewart

Jamie Stewart is the creative force behind the experimental pop group, Xiu Xiu. Anything That Moves is the exact kind of book fans of Stewart’s music would expect them to write. A bizarre and painfully vulnerable exploration of desire, identity, and a desperation for human connection. An open wound of a book. It follows Stewart’s exploration of sexuality and desire from early adolescence onward. Reading it almost feels transgressive, like reading someone’s diary. This semi-memoir is exhibited in the form of a series of vignettes and essays. Making it not only as vulnerable as a diary, but very much structured like one.  

The extreme intimacy of Stewart’s book also feels expansive. They invite us to reflect on our own desires and vulnerabilities. Stewart’s voice is unique, lyrical, surreal, and heartbreaking. Anything that moves is one of the most compelling books I’ve read in years, and the grossest book I’ve ever read cover to cover. An absolute gift to the world of contemporary literature. — Kole Oakes, Burke’s Book Store

Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams

Blood at the Root was a hot topic on BookTok (the reader-friendly side of TikTok). The debut novel from Southerner LaDarrion Williams features a young man who is coming into his magic and whose life is shrouded in mystery. With new powers and a checkered past, Malik is given an invitation to a magical HBCU (historical Black college and university) where he’ll hone his magic and find clues to put the pieces of his past together. Blood at the Root explores not only the roots and secrets that connect us in an unforgettable contemporary setting, but also introduces a new world of magic to fans of Harry Potter and other fantastical series. — Jeremee DeMoir, DeMoir Books & Things

Children of Anguish & Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi

The third and final book in the Legacy of Orisha series, CAA returns us to Zelie’s journey! After all she’s done to return magic to Orisha, she’s facing a new and dangerous foe. However, she’s not alone. Joined by Amari, Tzain, and Inan, Zelie meets new companions who will help her fight to put an end to the war the new enemy is about to bring to the world. Written by NYT bestselling author Tomi Adeyemi, this final installment has been much anticipated and the team at DeMoir Books couldn’t wait to dive in once it was released in late June 2024! — Jeremee DeMoir, DeMoir Books & Things

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes

In Ascension, is an import from Scottish author Martin MacInnes, released in the U.S. this year. A literary fiction that blurs the lines between speculative and science fiction, it’s set in the immediate future with the climate crisis we face now as it will progress as predicted.

The story follows a marine biologist from the Netherlands, a land recovered from and ever-contesting against the water. She studies ancient microorganisms, archaea, and the origins of life. One theory is that these first life forms originated in hydrothermal vents, and so when a trench in the ocean is newly discovered, she joins the research expedition to map and measure it.

From the bottom of the deepest depths of our ocean and planet, to where life started, what it can survive, how the findings can be used, and where that can take us, this eco-fiction spans a larger than human scale. — Dianna Dalton, Novel

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb

An honest look into the world of therapy! This poignant story gives insight to how a therapist approaches their work while also showing what therapy can look like on the other side of the couch as the client.

You follow Gottlieb’s client’s through the lens of the therapist, learning what sort of intentional work one might do to help clients feel comfortable enough to trust the process and heal. Intermixed within chapters, you also get to experience Gottlieb’s journey as she goes through her own therapy after her personal life takes a dramatic hit. The perfect showcase that anyone can grow with therapy, even the therapists themselves! — Mandy Martin, Novel

Road Home by Rex Ogle

Once Rex’s father figures out Rex is gay, he is given an ultimatum: to become straight or get kicked out of the family.

This book shook me to my core. Rex is kicked out of his home by his parents, betrayed by the people who are supposed to love him the most. What follows is a life on the streets in New Orleans. As a gay teen experiencing homelessness, Rex constantly struggles for the basic needs of food, water, shelter, and sleep. The people he meets do not always have his best interests at heart and often cause more harm than good.

With no place to call home, no one to look out for him, no safety net, Rex barely gets by, and most of the time he hangs onto his dignity by a loose, fraying thread. This memoir is gut-wrenching and will break your heart. His future looks very bleak, and when it looks like he may not make it, a beacon of light emerges when he least expects it.

A true story of survival, Rex tells it all with honesty and grace.

Road Home is the third and last book in Rex Ogle’s memoir trilogy which also includes Free Lunch and Punching Bag. — Sheri Bancroft, Novel

There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America’s Biggest Catfish by Anna Akbari 

There Is No Ethan is a dark and unsettling read. Set in the early days of social media, the protagonist’s toxic obsession and self-delusion are both captivating and repulsive. Akbari’s writing is unflinching and raw, making it hard to look away from the train wreck. A haunting and uncomfortable exploration of the human psyche, but not for the faint of heart. This book will linger long after the final page is turned. — Blake C. Helis, Burke’s Book Store 

All books mentioned can be purchased at the respective bookstore locations. For upcoming book events, including book clubs and author signings, visit the Flyer’s event calendar.

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Book Features Books

Corey Mesler’s Two-fer

Corey Mesler (Photo: Jon W. Sparks)

Corey Mesler seems to have literary works in every stage of production. A list of his published works has 33 volumes of poetry and 21 prose books. He’s got other works accepted for publication but not yet printed. And he’s working on a novel now, which probably actually means he’s got several going on at various stages in the creative process. 

But let’s just focus on this week when he’s having a reading and book signing for two that are fresh off the presses. Vitamins for Ygdrasil and Other Poems is in the verse category and The World is Neither Stacked For You nor Against You: Selected Stories is the prose offering. (The event is at Burke’s Book Store July 25th from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.).

So, no novel? We just have to be a bit patient — one is coming next year, but it’ll happen since Mesler says he now only writes poems or novels. “I’d rather be writing a novel than anything else in the world,” he says. “And poems I write in between on days that I don’t work on the novel. They just sort of come.” 

He’s not even that much into short stories these days, despite his new selected stories book. “I got a little tired of the form, and it takes such precision,” he allows. That’s why there are only a couple of new stories in the book; mostly it’s previously published but hard-to-find tales. But if you haven’t read ’em, they’re now in this neat package for your delectation. 

Despite Mesler’s current view of the short story form, he was encouraged to assemble the works by Steve Stern, the acclaimed author from Memphis. “He said, ‘You ought to take the strongest stories and put ’em together.’ And I said, ‘Okay, that’s a great idea. Will you do an introduction for them?’” That’s some literary horse-trading there.

There’s much to appreciate in the titles alone. Try these: “The Slim Harpo Blues,” “Any Day is a Good Day that Doesn’t Start with Killing a Rat with a Hammer,” “God and the Devil: The Exit Interview.” Irresistible. As Mesler says, “I love titling things. I love titling poems. In stories and in novels, I often will have a musician character so I can make up song titles.”

He’s also got the title mojo working in Vitamins for Ygdrasil: “Franny and Zooey Deschanel,” “World Full of Spooky,” “Learn to Love Your Narcotics.” The poems are not tied together thematically, which Mesler regrets a little bit. “My poetry collections always come when all of a sudden, I realized that I published a bunch of poems that I probably should gather. I wish I was one of those poets that worked thematically.”

The volume is not entirely random, though. There are several poems that refer to Ygdrasil, a giant oak in Mesler’s yard that provides acorns of inspiration. And there is inspiration there as well in the form of Richard Powers’ novel The Overstory. “I fell in love with his idea of the forest as a creature itself. Everything’s connected in a forest and it’s fascinating — the symbiosis that goes on in a forest. Trees talk to each other; they save each other. It’s all a design.”

So expect two volumes at Thursday’s event, thematically unconnected but both with content that is funny, profound, thoughtful, and very likely to make you stop and think. It’s also worth noting that the two books of literary art also have fascinating fine art on the covers. Vitamins for Ygdrasil has a splendid work of a tree (as you might imagine) by local artist Martha Kelly. And for The World is Neither Stacked, Mesler is using a work by noted illustrator Edward Carey that — like a good short story — will make you think. 

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Blurb Book Features Books

To Read, or Not to Read? (March 2024)

Once again, the Memphis Flyer has taken to the streets (read: email) to ask Memphis’ booksellers what on Earth we should be reading this month. And, thank goodness, they’ve answered with recommendations that’ll fit on anyone’s bookshelf. Check them out below.

Black Roses: Odes Celebrating Powerful Black Women, Harold Green III
Black Roses is a beautiful collection of odes crafted by poet Harold Green III and pays tribute to all Black women by focusing on visionaries and leaders who are making history right now, including Ava DuVernay, Janelle Monae, Kamala Harris, Misty Copeland, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Robin Roberts, Roxane Gay, Simone Biles, and many others. The collection features full-color illustrations by Melissa Koby. We recommend this book because it’s a powerful expression of love for women during Women’s History Month!
— Jeremee DeMoir, owner at DeMoir Books & Things

Dance of Thieves, Mary E. Pearson
Dance of Thieves is a fantasy duology with a strong female main character. The book contains enemies to lovers, forced proximity, found family, and multiple plot twists. It is masterfully written as the reader is entirely captured by the plot and never bored with what is happening. Although it is set in a fictional world, it is an easily followed story and the characters are realistic. This duology is similar to Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, and I would definitely recommend it to any fantasy readers. — Maya Zelinski, bookseller and co-founder/co-leader of the Teen Writing Group at Novel

James, Percival Everett 
I only discovered Percival Everett last year and I’m now trying to catch up and read everything. He’s one of our finest and most versatile writers, and this new one is one of his best. Witty, wise, joyful, painful, important, and highly readable. I predict this will finally win him the Pulitzer. — Corey Mesler, owner at Burke’s Book Store

The Other Valley, Scott Alexander Howard
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard came out in February to glowing reviews, but hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention at the store if you ask me! Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro is an obvious and faithful comp, but while I have started NLMG more times than I can count and could never finish, I fell for this one immediately. It’s speculative fiction, sort of literary sci-fi, set in a world made up of a series of valleys — the same place, with the same people, duplicated over and over 20 years ahead of or behind the next, depending on whether you’re going west or east. Does this sound convoluted? I hear it, too. But trust me when I say it does not require any kind of mental mastery of its bent laws of physics to enjoy. The writing is so good I found myself rereading some sentences three or four times, just to soak them in. It’s a quiet, atmospheric novel full of big ideas that manages to double as a page-turner. Basically, my favorite kind of book. — Kat Leache, Social Media & Promotions at Novel

Thicker Than Water: A Memoir, Kerry Washington 
Award-winning actor, director, producer, and activist Kerry Washington shares the journey of her life so far in this bravely intimate story of discovering her truth. We selected this as it comes from the woman who changed television. Best known for portraying Olivia Pope on the ABC hit Scandal, when it premiered, a Black woman hadn’t had the lead role in a network drama for nearly 40 years. Kerry Washington changed the game and Scandal decimated the idea that a Black female lead would alienate audiences, proving, instead, that it would energize them. Why not celebrate such a powerful figure and share this powerful book during Women’s History Month? — Jeremee DeMoir, owner at DeMoir Books & Things

All books mentioned can be purchased at the respective bookstore locations. Support indie and support local. For upcoming book events, including book clubs and author signings, visit the Flyer’s event calendar.

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Book Features Books

Michael Kiggins’ And the Train Kept Moving

Photo: Courtesy Michael Kiggins

Earlier this month, Michael Kiggins released his debut novel, And the Train Kept Moving (Running Wild Press). Set in Memphis, the book uncovers the story of Bryan Meigs, described as “a gay alcoholic with OCD who struggles with the aftermath of getting date-raped and potentially infected with HIV.” It’s a story about mental illness, addiction, and compulsion, and it’s a story about a doomed quest for revenge. 

A former student of the University of Memphis, Kiggins now lives in Nashville but will return to Memphis for a reading and book signing at Burke’s Book Store this Friday at 5:30 p.m. In anticipation of the event, we spoke with the author about his debut novel and his writing journey. Here’s what he had to say. — Abigail Morici

Memphis Flyer: What drove you to write this book?

Michael Kiggins: It started off almost 20 years ago as part of my MFA thesis, but it was a completely different book. It’s gone through several drafts. The narrator and protagonist of the final published draft was originally a secondary character. Just full disclosure, I have OCD, kind of bad, and I just sort of locked into Bryan as the narrator and his mental illness and how that shapes the way that he looks at the world and reacts to the things that happened to him and the things that he does became the spine of the novel. I kind of wanted to explore [OCD] — sort of like, what if a person dealt with what I have sort of have dealt with and mostly gotten over, but that person didn’t [get over it] and what if they went into a really dark place because of it? And I wanted to study that in a time that advances in HIV treatment were there, had been there for about seven years, but it was nine years before the FDA would approve PrEP and 12 years before marriage equality. So much better times than the early ’80s and early ’90s, But his mental illness and just fixations and obsessions can’t really let him see past his own fears of infection. … 

There have been times in previous versions where [the novel] was third person and I just felt like it wasn’t clicking, that it was too removed. And I think one of the strengths of the narration in this final version is that you are so locked into Bryan’s sort of headspace, and — I don’t know if I succeeded at this — but I wanted readers to sort of feel trapped as he is in his own thoughts.

Why was it important for your character to have OCD?

OCD in popular culture and then media often gets reduced to very simplistic things often about tidiness and anal retentiveness, and I really would like for people to inhabit a character who is constantly on guard, trying to protect himself, not really fully understanding exactly how that is ruining his life. I wanted [readers] to feel the obsessive nature that often just gets reduced to a punchline. Also, by using the first person narrator, I wanted them to sort of sympathize with Bryan, but at the same time, by the end of the novel and over the course of the novel, to really begin questioning their allegiances, and why maybe they originally identified with him. I mean, he does some horrible stuff. The novel opens and we know he’s murdered somebody. To me the novel is a tragedy, but the narrator of this novel believes this is sort of a comedy in the classic sense. He is deluding himself. He thinks he’s claimed a victory, but we can hopefully recognize just the pure tragedy of it. 

Why did you choose to set your novel in Memphis over any other place?

I have been in Nashville since 2002, but I was in Memphis from the fall of 1993 until May 2002. I went to undergrad when it was still Memphis State University at the time. And I worked in the mental health field for a few years.Then I realized I didn’t want to do that with my life. So I Hail-Mary-ed an application for [University of Memphis’] MFA program and got in. I started writing [the story] in Memphis like little scraps of scenes here and there, and I didn’t change it because, I don’t know, I love Memphis to death. To me, Memphis was just such a character in the novel itself. And there’s just something about the city that when I lived there, I knew so many people that had been there forever and would rag on the city but they’d never moved. In certain ways, I wanted Bryan to be sort of emblematic of the kind of person who has stayed in Memphis maybe too long, but doesn’t really know how to move on with his life. 

What made you shift from working in the mental health field to pursuing creative writing?

I wasn’t an English major in undergrad. And in fact, I didn’t have enough English credits from undergrad when I got into the MFA program so I had to take some extra classes, but I wrote my first novel in high school. But when I graduated with my B.S. in psych, I worked in the mental health field, and by the end of that, I was so stressed that I had worn deep gouges into my steering wheel, just from the stress. Eventually, I went to work for Friends for Life, and it was one of the most rewarding and fulfilling jobs in my life. But I lost many clients to HIV. I had recently lost one of my favorite clients, and my partner was like, ‘Michael, do you want to do social work for the rest of your professional career?’ And it was such an obvious question, but I hadn’t really ever considered it. At that point, I had been writing a lot, but before the MFA program, I’d never been in a writing workshop. So that sort of opened my eyes to how much I needed to learn. But the program probably saved my life. If I had stayed in the mental health field without any sort of options, I don’t know who I would be today.

Do you feel that you were able to benefit by having another career before pursuing writing professionally and by working on this book for almost two decades?

I’m so grateful for the time I had to really just put this aside to grow as a person, to reconsider what I was attempting to do, and to maybe shed some of my youthful or late 20s, early 30 pretensions. I’m dealing with a lot of heavy topics, and with the very different book that it was way back then [when I first started], I don’t think I had enough insights to accomplish what I was trying to even then. So, yeah, the many extra years really let me sort of interrogate things on a deeper level and just simply refine my writing at the sentence level. But I’m also very grateful and glad that I’m being published before I’m 50. 

And the Train Kept Moving is available for purchase on Amazon and Burke’s Book Store. An audiobook is in production. 

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We Recommend We Recommend

Blue If Only I Could Tell You

In high school, my English teachers told us to analyze poetry with the TPCASTT method. What do all those letters mean? I have no idea, but I remember the acronym and I remember when I saw that on the chalkboard, it was time for the dreaded poetry week and the dreaded method that dissected all the fun of what I thought poetry could be. What a way to turn a gal off from poetry, and I’m sure many people can empathize, right? Well, Richard Tillinghast gets where I’m coming from, and he’s a real-deal poet (and yes, he knows it).

“It seems like when you’re taught poetry in school, somebody is always kind of trying to drum it into your head: What does this mean?” Tillinghast says. “As I’m concerned, poetry isn’t particularly asking to be understood as much as it is asking to be loved. … Maybe one of the main things that I’m trying to do in my poetry is to communicate pleasure.”

Tillinghast’s latest collection of poems Blue If Only I Could Tell You does, admittedly, touch on the darkly complex history of America, particularly the American South, but the poet says, “Writing or singing about something that’s really painful, it really does have a cathartic effect. … I write about a lot of dark subjects, but I don’t consider my points downers. Kind of talking, writing about stuff like that, and experiencing it through the art of poetry, you feel better once you’ve done it.”

For this book, the poet has distinguished his topics by grouping poems into sections. One section, for instance, is about the Indigenous plight through the effects of colonialism; another is about the systemic racism in the South. Set in Memphis, where he grew up, the poems in this section are mostly autobiographical.

The poem, “Cake,” is dedicated to Ollie, whom his family hired for housekeeping when Tillinghast was younger. “She kind of raised us,” he says of Ollie, whose last name he doesn’t remember though he remembers her fondness for country music and the cakes she would bake for his birthday. In the poem he writes, “There’s no going back in time/but I wish I could go back./I’d like to get inside/the mind of this woman/who was paid to look after me.”

In all, Tillinghast uses poetry to grapple with his privilege stemming from the America’s violent past, while also acknowledging his love for the South’s culture and his upbringing in Memphis. “I feel so lucky to have grown up in the place that I did,” he says. Now, after living all over the world from Ireland to Michigan, Tillinghast splits his time between living in Sewanee and Hawaii. “I love going to Memphis. It’s a big highlight for me whenever I’m able to go back to Memphis.”

This Thursday, the poet will return to Memphis to discuss and sign his book at Burke’s Book Store.

Reading with Richard Tillinghast, Burke’s Book Store, Thursday, February 23rd, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

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Book Features Books

Corey Mesler’s Camel Literary Universe

CREDIT: Courtesy Corey Mesler

“Welcome to the new America. How can I help you?” asks Corey Mesler when I call him to talk about his newest novel, The Adventures of Camel Jeremy Eros. The poet, author, and owner, with his wife, Cheryl, of Burke’s Book Store, is nothing if not prolific — it seems as though we were just speaking about Camel’s Bastard Son. Clearing up the Camel timeline — which ended up being more complex than this book reviewer originally realized — was just one of the things we discussed. As always, Mesler is charming and poetic — but that’s what I’ve come to expect.

Courtesy Corey Mesler

Corey Mesler

Memphis Flyer: Did you write this recently? It feels like Camel’s Bastard Son just came out.

Corey Mesler: In the small press world, what happens is there are different lag times between acceptance and publication. Some presses move really slowly, some presses move fast. This book I’d written long before Camel’s Bastard Son. This was supposed to come out before that in my perfect plan.

Are they related? Is it the same Camel?

Yes, it is, but Camel doesn’t actually appear in Camel’s Bastard Son as a corporeal being. It’s funny, at Christmas, a customer who — for some reason — is enamoured of my books gave as Christmas presents what he called “the Camel quartet.” I couldn’t be more flattered.

It makes me think of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripliad.

Yeah, or John Updike’s Rabbit books.

What are the other books in the quartet?

Camel first appears in We are Billion Year–Old Carbon, which is my Memphis hippie novel. I liked him so much, I put him in Memphis Movie, which takes place at a much later time. So I made him an old man who is a retired poet living in Midtown Memphis who gardens and doesn’t really write anymore.

When we talked about Camel’s Bastard Son, we spoke about contemporary politics and discourse. Are there similar influences here, or is this book focused on Camel?

It takes place more in the ’60s and ’70s. I was 14 years old in 1969, and I wanted so bad to be a hippie. I wanted to be at Woodstock, but I was 14. As a writer, I thought, I can go back and revisit that through Camel. That’s what this book is. It has some of the youthful joy, I hope, of being a young poet, going to San Francisco, that sort of thing.

You didn’t get to go, but did it feel good to send Camel?

Well, the chapter about Woodstock, you have to read it. Camel’s too stoned to get there.

Do you have plans to do a booksigning at Burke’s at some point — kind of a “make up” signing?

This book, I feel, was sort of lost in the pandemic. I hate to even say this — I have a novel coming out in March, and then I have an 800-page novel coming out in the summer, from two different presses.

Wait, what? When do you write these?

I know. It’s absurd. I don’t even think of myself as any more prolific or energetic. I’m not; I’m kind of a lazy writer.

Will these books feature science-fiction elements, like Camel’s Bastard Son?
Yeah, it’s in most of my books. A flattering way to describe it is magical realism, but I think of it more like I watched too much Twilight Zone as a kid.

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Book Features Books

Take a Leap: Corey Mesler’s Camel’s Bastard Son

Corey Mesler is something of a Renaissance man in the world of literature. He’s a poet, a fiction author, a book reviewer, and the owner (with his wife, Cheryl) of Burke’s Book Store in Cooper-Young.

This Saturday (Leap Day), February 29th, at 3 p.m., Mesler will celebrate the release of his 10th novel, Camel’s Bastard Son (Cabal Books), with a reading and signing at Burke’s. In advance of the event, I caught up with Mesler to talk about separating the parts of his practice, living with the absurd, and his new novel, which he calls “your typical boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, something-goes-horribly-wrong-with-the-time-machine story.”

Corey Mesler

Memphis Flyer: I’ve primarily thought of you as a poet. Is that wrong?

Corey Mesler: Some people think I’m a poet, some people think I’m a fiction-writer, and some people think I’m neither. [laughs] I’ll take any of ’em.

MF: Do you feel that practicing in other forms make you look at writing differently?

CM: You know, when I’m doing it I’m not conscious really of the fact that I do both. In a finished novel, I hope it sometimes shows that I have some sense of the poetry of the music of the line. But while I’m doing it I’m not conscious of anything except — well, sometimes I’m not conscious of anything. In a novel, I’m working on the big canvas. A novel takes a couple years to write. That’s all I’m focusing on — what are the characters going to do, where are they going?

MF: It seems to me that absurdity is an important element in the book.

CM: [laughs] Yeah, in my writing and in my life. When I was a young man, I read a lot of Kafka and Camus. And you know, Camus’ statement is “The absurd is the first truth.” So I like to think that when I’m being absurd, I’m being truthful. This novel is deceptively silly. One of my early readers compared it to Vonnegut, and I sort of took that and ran with it.

MF: I couldn’t help thinking about — and I don’t want to ruin anything — but the joke at the end, the recurring motif of not understanding. And I feel like you have to be able to live with a certain degree of absurdity just to exist right now.

CM: I think we’re skirting around mentioning the squatter in the White House.

MF: Well, I didn’t want to make you go there if you didn’t want to go there.

CM: I wrote this book when I thought he was a joke. I thought what would be really funny is if I wrote a novel from the perspective that he won. And then I’d already finished it and sent it to a publisher, and then he won.

MF: Oh, my god.

CM: Yeah, which still to me is more science-fiction than my novel is.

MF: It definitely feels like we slipped through the wormhole. But getting back to the book, before we make ourselves upset, I noticed the husband and wife relationship is pretty important.

CM: The first part of the book is basically a love story. … Basically it’s a guy who falls in love with the wrong woman, and she plays all sorts of havoc with his life. And the second half is my idea of a metaphor for that.

Camel’s Bastard Son

MF: As someone who owns and runs a bookstore, do you have a literary North Star you use to help guide you?

CM: I didn’t set out to write a Vonnegutian novel, but he is very important to me. Years ago, I wrote a book called Following Richard Brautigan, and everyone assumed, “Oh, well, he’s telling us who his gods are. Richard Brautigan is one of his favorite writers and that’s what the book’s about.” And it really wasn’t.

It was more the fact that I thought Richard Brautigan as a ghost would be a really funny character. But having said that, I loved Brautigan’s books when I was younger. I have my touchstones. Kafka and Camus and Vonnegut were the first authors I read when I decided that I didn’t really learn about books in high school. And I went to the library and was going to teach myself what good books were. Those were the first three [authors] I checked out.

MF: Has being on the retailer side of the book business ever soured you on the creative aspect of it?

CM: No, they’re pretty much compartmentalized in my brain. I don’t connect the two.

MF: One last question — with time travel and absurdity being components of Camel’s Bastard Son, was it intentional to have your booksigning on February 29th?

CM: It’s Leap Day, so it’s actually sort of a fake day. So we can pretend that none of this exists. It’s a metaphor for my life.

MF: That’s perfect. Sort of like, “None of this should have happened, but here we are on this fake day.”

CM: Exactly.

Corey Mesler discusses and signs Camel’s Bastard Son Saturday, February 29th, 3 p.m., at Burke’s Book Store.

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Talking to the Tillinghast brothers.

Richard Tillinghast and David Tillinghast are brothers, poets, and children of Memphis. Richard is the author of Journeys Into the Mind: A Book of Places. David is the author of Sisters, Cousins, and Wayward Angels. In advance of their signing in Memphis, I was able to corner the Tillinghasts and ask them a few questions. They are eloquent — and loquacious — fellas.

Memphis Flyer: What was it like growing up with two writers in the house? Did both of you know you were going to be poets early on, and did you read each other’s work? Any competition there?

David: From the start, Richard knew that he would be a writer. My interests lay in other areas, such as sports and girls. I enjoyed hunting and fishing, while Richard was concentrating scholastically. I joined the Navy. I saw lots of the world.

Certainly, there is no competition because that’s in bad taste.

Richard: Competition? Well, of course, all siblings compete with each other, but in this case I would say not so much. In my last couple of years in high school, David was in the Navy and off at college, so we weren’t at home together. I don’t think at that time it was clear to either of us that we’d be poets. I was taking classes with Mr. Callicott and playing drums in a band, and my ambitions were to be a painter and/or a drummer.

I was still playing in bands [when] I went off to Sewanee, and it was only there that it became clear to me I wanted to write poetry and make my living as a college professor.

I’ve known the Tillinghast name for as long as I’ve been a bookseller, and I was told long ago that you are Memphians. Tell me the particulars and what Memphis means to you.

David: Memphis is our hometown, historical as well as actual; our 1888 home on South Cox was way out in the country then. Mother and her two brothers went to Central High School. My grandfather, A. J. Williford, was a prominent attorney in Memphis. I remember hot, sweaty summer nights eating watermelon at the Pig and Whistle. Some of us boys would ride our bicycles to the Malco Theater to watch Randolph Scott. Some afternoons, I would take the street car up to the Falls Building on Front Street where my father had an office.

Richard: Yes, even with the old New England name of Tillinghast, David and I are both Memphians. This identification gets stronger and stronger for me as I get older and now spend my summers at Sewanee.

Our father was a New England Yankee, and our earliest American ancestor came to Rhode Island in 1640. The Williford side of the family has been in West Tennessee since before the Civil War. When you grow up in Memphis, that’s what you are, a Memphian and a Southerner. Though I have traveled all over the world, I am very proud to be from Memphis. David and I both graduated from Central High. I was among those who hung out with Furry Lewis. Bill Eggleston was a friend, and his work epitomizes something important about our region, as do the paintings of Carroll Cloar and Burton Callicott. Jesse Winchester as a singer and songwriter, the great historian Shelby Foote, and Peter Taylor as a friend and mentor are also Memphians whose work means a lot to me.

And my favorite question to ask writers: whom do you read and, if apropos, who influenced you?

David: Of the yonder writers, there is Homer’s Odyssey; the letters of Peter Abelard to Heloise; and of course, passages from Shakespeare, the old English ballads. Moving sketchily forward, there is Bobby Burns, James Whitcomb Riley, Winston Churchill’s histories, W. H. Auden. The Georgian poets of the first war: Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke. Erich Maria Remarque, John Steinbeck’s stories, Hemingway. On a more immediate level, I was influenced by my mentors George Garrett and James Dickey, not stylistically, but through our everyday contact, which eventually developed into friendship.

Richard: What do I read? Here is my summer reading: Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks. Dennis Covington’s riveting Salvation on Sand Mountain. Donald Hall’s Essays After Eighty. Two books by Sewanee graduate Jon Meacham: American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House and Franklin and Winston. The Oracle at Stoneleigh Court by Peter Taylor. And I’m re-reading “The Bear” by the greatest of them all, William Faulkner.

Richard and David Tillinghast booksigning at Burke’s Book Store Thursday, July 13th at 5:30 p.m.