Memphis Movie

Like almost everyone, Eric Warberg went to Hollywood to make it big. For many years, he was successful, until directing a few box office bombs made him virtually unemployable. When an opportunity presents itself for a return to his hometown of Memphis, to direct a small, independent film, it is a return to his roots in more ways than one. Despite the fact that he’s greeted like a star, his homecoming is bittersweet.
The novel begins on the onset of filming of what is temporarily called Memphis Movie. From day one, Eric feels stuck and unable to find his creative spark. He is helped along by a large cast of characters, some from his past and some from the filmmaking industry, including his partner, Sandy, who wrote the script for the movie. Their open relationship will be challenged by Eric’s return to his roots.
Running parallel to the film’s production is the story of ex-hippie poet Camel Jeremy Eros, who has been hired by Eric to add Memphis mojo” to the script. Camel, who is in his twilight years, will be both tainted and awakened by his assignment. He is helped along by a teenage runaway who has come to live with him and who may or may not be of the fairy people.”
Memphis Movie reads like a Robert Altman film, with many story strands making up the rich tapestry. The novel’s central question: Will Eric lose or find his soul in Memphis, a town where soul has so many meanings?

Corey Mesler has published in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Esquire/Narrative4 Project andGood Poems, American Places (Viking Press, 2011). He has published seven novels,Talk: A Novel in Dialogue (2002), We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon (2006),The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores (2010), Following Richard Brautigan (2010),Gardner Remembers (2011), Frank Comma and the Time-Slip (2012), andDiddy-Wah-Diddy: A Beale Street Suite (2013); 3 full length poetry collections,Some Identity Problems (2008), Before the Great Troubling (2011), andOur Locust Years (2013), and 3 books of short stories, Listen: 29 Short Conversations (2009),Notes toward the Story and Other Stories (2011) and I’ll Give You Something to Cry About (2011). He has also published over a dozen chapbooks of both poetry and prose. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize numerous times, and two of his poems have been chosen for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. His fiction has received praise from John Grisham, Robert Olen Butler, Lee Smith, Frederick Barthelme, Greil Marcus, among others. With his wife, he runs Burke’s Book Store in Memphis TN, one of the country’s oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores.