Our Staff
Corey Mesler
...who had been Burke's manager since 1988, became the owner of the store with his lovely wife Cheryl (cf.) in 2000. Before coming to the book business in 1974 he had his own T.V. series called Secret Agent Man. He's been a pirate, a pauper, a puppet, a poet, a pawn and a king. He lives in Midtown with Cheryl and his son Toby, daughter Chloe, Border Collie Fly, and imaginary friend, Sigismund. His favorite authors include Philip Roth, John Updike, Iris Murdoch and William Steig. He is the author of numerous works of poetry and fiction.
...who had been Burke's manager since 1988, became the owner of the store with his lovely wife Cheryl (cf.) in 2000. Before coming to the book business in 1974 he had his own T.V. series called Secret Agent Man. He's been a pirate, a pauper, a puppet, a poet, a pawn and a king. He lives in Midtown with Cheryl and his son Toby, daughter Chloe, Border Collie Fly, and imaginary friend, Sigismund. His favorite authors include Philip Roth, John Updike, Iris Murdoch and William Steig. He is the author of numerous works of poetry and fiction.
Cheryl Mesler
...is originally from the Mississippi Delta. She moved to Memphis in 1990 to take a supposedly temporary job at Burke's Book Store, and shortly thereafter married the store manager (see above). Family Life same as above. When she isn't reading novels, she likes knitting scarves and watching reruns of Hee Haw and the Lawrence Welk Show.
Robb Denyse
...is the store manager, also serving as webmaster (web janitor is more like it) and handling the out-of-print book searches. Born in Brooklyn, U.S.A., he moved to Memphis in early 1996 and had a torturous job at a local office supply store where he sold a chair to former Burke's owner Harriette Beeson, thus sealing his fate. He reads bunches of histories, many novels, several biographies, a few essay collections, and the occasional poem.
Susan Moskop
...earned her B.A. from Tulane University and her M.A. from University of Mississippi. She lives with her family of readers, husband R.J., an anesthesiologist, and daughter Sophie. She belongs to a book club whose members are equally adept at cooking extraordinay potluck dinners and discussing literature intelligently. She enjoys reading poetry, science fiction, mysteries, Jane Austen, Henry James, and Shakespeare. Somewhere inside her is a frustrated actress trying to get out.
Friedrich Kerksieck
...spent his wee years detasseling, hand-pollinating & roguing corn in native Iowa. He just moved to Memphis with his girlfriend, Gabrielle, and is happy to find a new bookstore home. He holds an MFA in Book Arts from the University of Alabama & is the sole owner/operator of Small Fires Press. Hot dog sandwiches are tempting to him.
Hannah King
...is a recent graduate of Memphis College of Art. Since then she has worked at Burke's and gotten a kitten named Eloise. She enjoys reading Milan Kundera, Haruki Murakami, Thomas Hardy, and the occasional memoir of life at the Factory. Oh, and especially enjoys her new hobby of vintage cookbooks with gross images of shiny food from 1968-1972. She also plays the banjo, almost.
Chloe Mesler
...age 13, is the daughter of owners Corey and Cheryl, and will someday step in to run Burke's, provided she can come up with the down payment. She loves fashion, anything from the 80's, her dog Fly, her rabbit Bowie, Charlie Chaplin, stuffed animals, and toast.