Jan Burke

of novels and short stories. She is a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel.

Bio

Burke was born in Texas, 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 Bushtaxi.Fact|date=December 2007 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".

Novels

* Featuring newspaper reporter Irene Kelly;

* Goodnight, Irene (1993)
* Sweet Dreams, Irene (1994)
* Dear Irene (1995)
* Remember Me, Irene (1996)
* Hocus (1997)
* Liar (1998)
* Bones (2000)
* Bloodlines (2005)
* Kidnapped (2006)

Other novels

* Flight (2001)
* Nine (2002)
* 18 (2003) "collection of short stories"

Contributions

Burke edited the first edition of "Breaking and Entering" [cite news
url = http://www.mysteryreaders.org/athomeburke.html
title = Inside The Cover Book Reviews
accessdate = 2006-08-24
publisher = Mysteryreaders.com] , 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" [cite news
url = http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/writing_mysteries.htm
title = Jan Burke, interviewed by T. Jefferson Parker
accessdate = 2006-08-24
publisher = Absolutewrite.com] , edited by Sue Grafton. She is a longtimemember 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.

Awards and Nominations

Edgar Award
* 1999 Best Novel "Bones".
Edgar nomination [cite news
url = http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv50.html
title = Edgar Award Winners and Nominees
accessdate = 2006-08-30
publisher = ThrillingDetective.com]
* 2001 Best Short Story "The Abbey Ghosts" Agatha Award [cite news
url = http://www.malicedomestic.org/agathapast.htm
title = Past Award Winners & Nominees
accessdate = 2006-08-24
publisher = Malice Domestic Ltd]
* 2001 Best Short Story "The Man in the Civil Suit" Agatha Nominations [cite news
url = http://www.malicedomestic.org/agathapast.htm
title = Past Award Winners & Nominees
accessdate = 2006-08-24
publisher = Malice Domestic Ltd]
* 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
* 1995 Best Short Story "Unharmed"

* Best Mystery Short Story: "The Abbey Ghosts"
Macavity nominations [cite news
url = http://www.mysteryreaders.org/macavity.html
title = Macavity Award Winners & Nominees
accessdate = 2006-08-24
publisher = Mystery Readers Interlational]
* 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 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 [cite news
url = http://www.deadlypleasures.com/Barry.htm
title = The Barry Awards
accessdate = 2006-08-30
publisher = DeadlyPleasures.com]
* 2006 Best Novel, "Bloodlines"
* 1998 Best Novel "Hocus"

References

External links

* [http://www.janburke.com/about_media.html Jan Burke's official website]