Jan Burke (born August 1, 1953) is an American

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

of novels and short stories. She is a winner of the

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

for Best Novel, the Agatha for Best Short Story, the Macavity, and Ellery Queen Readers Award.

Bio

Burke was born August 1, 1953, in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, but has lived in Southern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

most of her life. She attended

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

, and graduated with a degree in history. She is a distinguished alumna of CSULB. 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 () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

. She received a surprising boost from a new fan when, during his first

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

interview after taking office, President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

said he was reading ''Goodnight, Irene''. Her books have been on bestseller lists of the ''New York Times, USA Today'' and other publications. They have been published internationally and have been optioned for film and television. Burke became active in raising awareness of the problems facing crime labs and the need to obtain better funding for forensic science, at one point founding a nonprofit to do so. She has also been an advocate for the improvement of medicolegal death investigation in the U.S. and for requiring the reporting of unidentified remains t
NamUs
Working with missing persons advocates, she helped to get legislation passed in New York State, the first state to require Namus reporting by all coroners and medical examiners. Other states have followed this model. She has been a speaker at meetings of the National Institute of Justice, the American Society of Crime Lab Directors, the California Association of Criminalists, the California Association of Crime Lab Directors, and other forensic science organizations. She has served on the honorary board of the California Forensic Science Institute. Burke has been the Guest of Honor at several mystery fan conventions, including Malice Domestic, Left Coast Crime, and Mayhem in the Midwest. Illness in her family has taken her away from writing in recent years.

Novels

Irene Kelly Mysteries: * ''Goodnight, Irene'' (1993) * ''Sweet Dreams, Irene'' (1994) * ''Dear Irene'' (1995) * ''Remember Me, Irene'' (1996) * ''Hocus'' (1997) * ''Liar'' (1998) * ''

Bones A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, an ...

'' (2000) * ''Flight'' (2001) (from the POV of Frank Harriman) * ''Bloodlines'' (2005) * ''Kidnapped'' (2006) * ''Disturbance'' (2011)

Other novels

* ''Nine'' (2002) * ''18'' (2003) ''collection of short stories * ''The Messenger'' (2009)

Contributions

Burke edited the first edition of ''Breaking and Entering'', a Sisters in Crime's guide to getting published. She served as an Associate Editor on ''Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America'', edited by

Sue Grafton Sue Taylor Grafton (April 24, 1940 – December 28, 2017) was an American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the "alphabet series" (''"A" Is for Alibi'', etc.) featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fic ...

. She has served on the national boards of

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

and the American Crime Writers League. She is a past president of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (MWA). Burke's novel Bloodlines 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

* 1999 Best Novel ''Bones''. Edgar nomination * 2001 Best Short Story ''The Abbey Ghosts''

Agatha Award The Agatha Awards, named for Agatha Christie, are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write in the traditional mystery subgenre: "books typified by the works of Agatha Christie . . . loosely defined as mysteries that contain no expli ...

* 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 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'' ...

* 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 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 (1911–1968), one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America. Among the m ...

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''

References

External links

Jan Burke's official websiteJan Burke on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Jan Agatha Award winners American mystery writers 20th-century American novelists California State University, Long Beach alumni Edgar Award winners Living people Macavity Award winners 1953 births People from Houston 21st-century American novelists American women novelists American women short story writers Women mystery writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers