Jan Burke
Encyclopedia
Jan Burke is an award-winning author
of novels and short stories. She is a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel.
, but has lived in Southern California
most of her life. She comes from a close-knit family, and remains close to her parents, two sisters and a brother. Burke's husband is musician Tim Burke, whose bands include Downtight. She attended California State University, Long Beach
, and graduated with a degree in history.
She worked as a researcher on an oral history project interviewing "Rosie the Riveters." Later she became the manager of a manufacturing plant for a large corporation.
She completed her first novel, Goodnight, Irene in the evenings after work. It was sold unagented and unsolicited to Simon & Schuster
. She received a surprising boost from a new fan when, during his first White House
interview after taking office, President Bill Clinton
said he was reading Goodnight, Irene.
published. She served as an Associate Editor on Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America, edited by Sue Grafton
. She is a longtime
member of Sisters in Crime and has served on the national boards of Mystery Writers of America
and the American Crime Writers League.
Burke is the founder and director of the Crime Lab Project, an organization working to raise awareness of the problems facing crime labs and the need to obtain better funding for forensic science. She is a past president of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (MWA) and has served on MWA's National Board.
Burke's collection of short stories, Bones, appears in the television series Bones: Season 1, Ep. 17 - The Skull in the Desert. It is used as a prop on a table at minute 15:05.
Edgar nomination
Agatha Award
Agatha Nominations
Macavity Awards
Macavity nominations
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Reader's Award.
Romantic Times's Career Achievement Award for Contemporary Suspense
Anthony Award
nominations
Barry Nominations
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of novels and short stories. She is a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel.
Bio
Burke was born in TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, but has lived in Southern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
most of her life. She comes from a close-knit family, and remains close to her parents, two sisters and a brother. Burke's husband is musician Tim Burke, whose bands include Downtight. She attended California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach is the second largest campus of the California State University system and the third largest university in the state of California by enrollment...
, and graduated with a degree in history.
She worked as a researcher on an oral history project interviewing "Rosie the Riveters." Later she became the manager of a manufacturing plant for a large corporation.
She completed her first novel, Goodnight, Irene in the evenings after work. It was sold unagented and unsolicited to Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
. She received a surprising boost from a new fan when, during his first White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
interview after taking office, President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
said he was reading Goodnight, Irene.
Novels
Irene Kelly Mysteries:- Goodnight, Irene (1993)
- Sweet Dreams, Irene (1994)
- Dear Irene (1995)
- Remember Me, Irene (1996)
- Hocus (1997)
- Liar (1998)
- Bones (2000)
- Flight (2001) (from the POV of Frank Harriman)
- Bloodlines (2005)
- Kidnapped (2006)
- Disturbance (2011)
Contributions
Burke edited the first edition of Breaking and Entering, a Sisters in Crime's guide to gettingpublished. She served as an Associate Editor on Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America, edited by Sue Grafton
Sue Grafton
Sue Taylor Grafton is a contemporary American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the 'alphabet series' featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. The daughter of detective novelist C. W...
. She is a longtime
member of Sisters in Crime and has served on the national boards of Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....
and the American Crime Writers League.
Burke is the founder and director of the Crime Lab Project, an organization working to raise awareness of the problems facing crime labs and the need to obtain better funding for forensic science. She is a past president of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (MWA) and has served on MWA's National Board.
Burke's collection of short stories, Bones, appears in the television series Bones: Season 1, Ep. 17 - The Skull in the Desert. It is used as a prop on a table at minute 15:05.
Awards and nominations
Edgar AwardEdgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
- 1999 Best Novel Bones.
Edgar nomination
- 2001 Best Short Story The Abbey Ghosts
Agatha Award
Agatha Award
The Agatha Awards are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write via the same method as Agatha Christie...
- 2001 Best Short Story The Man in the Civil Suit
Agatha Nominations
- 1997 Best Novel - Hocus
- 1998 Best Novel - Liar
- 2002 Best Short Story Devotion
- 2002 Best Non-fiction, Writing Mysteries (Sue Grafton and Barry Zeman)
Macavity Awards
Macavity Awards
The Macavity Awards are a literary award for mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the "mystery cat" of T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The award is given in four categories -- best novel,...
- 1995 Best Short Story Unharmed
- Best Mystery Short Story: "The Abbey Ghosts"
Macavity nominations
- 1998 Best Novel Liar
- 1997 Best Novel Hocus
- 2003 Best Mystery Novel Nine
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Reader's Award.
Romantic Times's Career Achievement Award for Contemporary Suspense
Anthony Award
Anthony Award
The Anthony Awards are literary awards for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention since 1986. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher , one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America....
nominations
- 1994 Best First Novel Goodnight, Irene
- 1999 Best Short Story Two Bits
- 2002 Best Novel Flight
- 2000 Best Novel Bones
- 2006 Best Novel Bloodlines
Barry Nominations
- 2006 Best Novel, Bloodlines
- 1998 Best Novel Hocus