Staff
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Tony Weller
Owner
Tony spent most of his childhood in the bookstore, influenced by books and the diverse staff who sold them. He started working at the bookstore in 1972, when he was ten years old. He worked from jobs such as sweeping and deliveries up through bookkeeping to management and the buying and selling of used and rare books. Today he manages the bookstore’s rare book department, buying estates and performing appraisals. He is former president of the Intermountain Booksellers Association and the Salt Lake Downtown Merchants Association. Tony held board positions on Salt Lake’s Downtown Alliance and Chamber of Commerce, the Salt Lake Vest Pocket Coalition and the Utah Health Policy Project. He is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. He has taught courses on book collecting at the University of Utah and speaks on numerous aspects of books to community groups. Influential Books includeSilence by John Cage, Living My Life by Emma Goldman, Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan and anything by Alan Watts.
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Catherine Weller
Owner & Lead New Book Buyer
Catherine is co-owner of Sam Wellers Bookstore. Her duties include supervising the new book buying functions. She began working at Wellers in 1994 as a floor clerk in the used and new books sections. She has also worked in Institutional Sale, Inventory Control, Payroll and Bookkeeping. She has served on the Board of Directors and as President of the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPIBA), and has also served on the Booksellers Advisory Council of the American Booksellers Association (ABA). Catherine is an omnivorous reader who believes it is important to read books from all genres and for all age groups.
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Stephanie Leitch
Office Manager & Artist
Stephanie Lietch has worked at Wellers for 10 years in numerous support capacities, including doing the graphics and advertising, curating art shows, and keeping the books for the books. She is also a knuckle-dragging artist and mother to a quirky and inordinately bookish son.
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John Clukey
Events & Outreach Coordinator
John Clukey is our Events Coordinator and head of Community Outreach. John began his career in bookselling at Borders in 1998 (he applied at Sam Wellers Bookstore at the same time). He joined the Wellers staff in 2006 as a bookseller in new and used books. He has since been a section leader and a used book buyer. John enjoys reading from all subjects, but particularly likes science fiction and science writing.
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Bruce Christensen
New Book Buyer
Bruce Christensen has been working at Sam Wellers for almost 33 years. He is currently our buyer for mass market, mysteries, western fiction, romance, thrillers and self-published books. Bruce is also the facilitator at several bookclubs. His favorite activity outside of work is, oddly enough, reading.
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Jennifer Nielsen
Sidelines Buyer
Judges books by their covers.
Enjoys collecting tomes.
Neglects putrid poetry.
Neil Gaiman, SWOON!
In love with Mark Twain.
Forgets easily, so she recites out loud.
Excited about neuroscience! And unicorns!
Requires quite time for comic book reading.
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Travis Nelson
Computers
Travis Nelson arrived to the valley from the northern wastes on his trusty salamander steed, Slagathor. He splits his time between gardening, raising a child and wife, music, books, and imagining less mundane activities in a purely hack & slash style. When not day dreaming or tapping out beats on a desk, he can be seen trying to keep the computer systems from a logic loop.
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Frank Pester
Buyer & Sales Floor Manager
After 10 years experience bookselling in Southern California, including 3 years of owning and operating his own store, Frank has now been working for Wellers for 15 years. In addition to being our buyer for art, entertainment, Western Americana and religion, Frank is our Manager of Retail Sales.
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Elizabeth Evaschuk
Bookseller
Elizabeth lives, works and attends college in Salt Lake City. She is majoring in Anthropology at the University of Utah and loving it. Accordingly, her literary tastes are somewhat, uhm, omnivorous? Perhaps amphibious would be better: rather than devouring books regardless of their genre, she inhabits multiple literary environments simultaneously.
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Joan Nay
Rare Books
Joan Nay has worked at Sam Weller's since before dirt was invented, and it is rumored that she knows where all the bodies are buried. That isBefore Computers, when the original inventory system was kept on small cards. She was mentored by Sam Weller himself, and has lived the last 37 years of store and book world history. She worked mostly in Used and Rare Books, and now works solely in the Rare Book Department where she is a used/rare book buyer; she does appraisals, and is an associate member of the Antiquarian Booksellers' of America Association. She likes to retain arcane bits of book trivia, research the provenance of rare books, and seems to know more about the subjects of regional history, biography, LDS (Mormonism), and a little bit about a bunch of other stuff. She reads mostly history, biography, mysteries, and anything else that suits her fancy. Of her job, she can honestly say that she has never, ever been bored.
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Jason Rabb
Bookseller
When Rabb is not reading books about microtonal music and polyrhythm, he's out back playing marbles.
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Lane Richins
Display Coordinator
Come to Wellers to enjoy Lane's “engaging warmth and vitality.” -Salt Lake City Weekly, May 5, 2011
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Zach Sampinos
Bookseller
Zach Sampinos reads fiction written by grumpy old men, enjoys stand-up comedy, and likes to touch hot stoves.
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Liz Shattler
Bookseller
Liz Shattler has been working at Sam Weller's since August of 2007 when she moved to SLC from Orange County, California. Her reasoning for moving to SLC was that it was cheaper than Los Angeles and she wouldn't have to fly in every year for the Sundance Film Festival anymore. Though Liz is an avid film fan, she also loves books! Her favorite authors include Joyce Carol Oates, Chuck Palahniuk, Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, and Sarah Schulman, to name a few. (Holy cow! Did you see that awesome Oxford Comma? They can't take that away from me, uh, I mean her, Liz.)
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Debra Evans
New Book Buyer
Debra is the main buyer for our children's section. She started working with books at a chain in 1975 but moved up to Weller's in 1984. She will read any good fiction but is passionately in love with science fiction, fantasy and horror, and she also became the buyer for those sections in 2002.
-
Tony Weller Owner
Tony spent most of his childhood in the bookstore, influenced by books and the diverse staff who sold them. He started working at the bookstore in 1972, when he was ten years old. He worked from jobs such as sweeping and deliveries up through bookkeeping to management and the buying and selling of used and rare books. Today he manages the bookstore’s rare book department, buying estates and performing appraisals. He is former president of the Intermountain Booksellers Association and the Salt Lake Downtown Merchants Association. Tony held board positions on Salt Lake’s Downtown Alliance and Chamber of Commerce, the Salt Lake Vest Pocket Coalition and the Utah Health Policy Project. He is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. He has taught courses on book collecting at the University of Utah and speaks on numerous aspects of books to community groups. Influential Books includeSilence by John Cage, Living My Life by Emma Goldman, Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan and anything by Alan Watts.
-
Catherine Weller Owner & Lead New Book Buyer
Catherine is co-owner of Sam Wellers Bookstore. Her duties include supervising the new book buying functions. She began working at Wellers in 1994 as a floor clerk in the used and new books sections. She has also worked in Institutional Sale, Inventory Control, Payroll and Bookkeeping. She has served on the Board of Directors and as President of the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPIBA), and has also served on the Booksellers Advisory Council of the American Booksellers Association (ABA). Catherine is an omnivorous reader who believes it is important to read books from all genres and for all age groups.
-
Stephanie Leitch Office Manager & Artist
Stephanie Lietch has worked at Wellers for 10 years in numerous support capacities, including doing the graphics and advertising, curating art shows, and keeping the books for the books. She is also a knuckle-dragging artist and mother to a quirky and inordinately bookish son.
-
John Clukey Events & Outreach Coordinator
John Clukey is our Events Coordinator and head of Community Outreach. John began his career in bookselling at Borders in 1998 (he applied at Sam Wellers Bookstore at the same time). He joined the Wellers staff in 2006 as a bookseller in new and used books. He has since been a section leader and a used book buyer. John enjoys reading from all subjects, but particularly likes science fiction and science writing.
-
Bruce Christensen New Book Buyer
Bruce Christensen has been working at Sam Wellers for almost 33 years. He is currently our buyer for mass market, mysteries, western fiction, romance, thrillers and self-published books. Bruce is also the facilitator at several bookclubs. His favorite activity outside of work is, oddly enough, reading.
-
Jennifer Nielsen Sidelines Buyer
Judges books by their covers. Enjoys collecting tomes. Neglects putrid poetry. Neil Gaiman, SWOON! In love with Mark Twain. Forgets easily, so she recites out loud. Excited about neuroscience! And unicorns! Requires quite time for comic book reading.
-
Travis Nelson Computers
Travis Nelson arrived to the valley from the northern wastes on his trusty salamander steed, Slagathor. He splits his time between gardening, raising a child and wife, music, books, and imagining less mundane activities in a purely hack & slash style. When not day dreaming or tapping out beats on a desk, he can be seen trying to keep the computer systems from a logic loop.
-
Frank Pester Buyer & Sales Floor Manager
After 10 years experience bookselling in Southern California, including 3 years of owning and operating his own store, Frank has now been working for Wellers for 15 years. In addition to being our buyer for art, entertainment, Western Americana and religion, Frank is our Manager of Retail Sales.
-
Elizabeth Evaschuk Bookseller
Elizabeth lives, works and attends college in Salt Lake City. She is majoring in Anthropology at the University of Utah and loving it. Accordingly, her literary tastes are somewhat, uhm, omnivorous? Perhaps amphibious would be better: rather than devouring books regardless of their genre, she inhabits multiple literary environments simultaneously.
-
Joan Nay Rare Books
Joan Nay has worked at Sam Weller's since before dirt was invented, and it is rumored that she knows where all the bodies are buried. That isBefore Computers, when the original inventory system was kept on small cards. She was mentored by Sam Weller himself, and has lived the last 37 years of store and book world history. She worked mostly in Used and Rare Books, and now works solely in the Rare Book Department where she is a used/rare book buyer; she does appraisals, and is an associate member of the Antiquarian Booksellers' of America Association. She likes to retain arcane bits of book trivia, research the provenance of rare books, and seems to know more about the subjects of regional history, biography, LDS (Mormonism), and a little bit about a bunch of other stuff. She reads mostly history, biography, mysteries, and anything else that suits her fancy. Of her job, she can honestly say that she has never, ever been bored.
-
Jason Rabb Bookseller
When Rabb is not reading books about microtonal music and polyrhythm, he's out back playing marbles.
-
Lane Richins Display Coordinator
Come to Wellers to enjoy Lane's “engaging warmth and vitality.” -Salt Lake City Weekly, May 5, 2011
-
Zach Sampinos Bookseller
Zach Sampinos reads fiction written by grumpy old men, enjoys stand-up comedy, and likes to touch hot stoves.
-
Liz Shattler Bookseller
Liz Shattler has been working at Sam Weller's since August of 2007 when she moved to SLC from Orange County, California. Her reasoning for moving to SLC was that it was cheaper than Los Angeles and she wouldn't have to fly in every year for the Sundance Film Festival anymore. Though Liz is an avid film fan, she also loves books! Her favorite authors include Joyce Carol Oates, Chuck Palahniuk, Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, and Sarah Schulman, to name a few. (Holy cow! Did you see that awesome Oxford Comma? They can't take that away from me, uh, I mean her, Liz.)
-
Debra Evans New Book Buyer
Debra is the main buyer for our children's section. She started working with books at a chain in 1975 but moved up to Weller's in 1984. She will read any good fiction but is passionately in love with science fiction, fantasy and horror, and she also became the buyer for those sections in 2002.