VJ Books Presents Author James Lee Burke!
 A Note from John: "It is no secret that I am a great fan of Burke's writing -- to say that his prose is the best is a major understatement. He is simply the master of the written word -- hands down -- no contest."
James Lee Burke was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936 and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast. He attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute and later received a B. A. Degree in English and an M. A. from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively. Over the years he worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, pipeliner, land surveyor, newspaper reporter, social worker on Skid Row in Los Angeles, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, instructor in the U. S. Job Corps, English professor at multiple universities, including as a tenured professor at Wichita State University.
Burke won the Edgar Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year twice: in 1990 and 1998. He has also been a recipient of a Breadloaf and Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA grant, and was awarded the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award in 2009. Two of his novels, Heaven's Prisoners and Two For Texas, have been made into motion pictures. His short stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, New Stories from the South, Best American Short Stories, Antioch Review, Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review. Perhaps most incredibly, his novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years before finally being published by Louisiana State University Press, at which point it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. You can find a selection of James Lee Burke signed books below this author biography.
Today Burke and his wife, Pearl, live in Missoula, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana. They have four children: Jim Jr., an assistant U.S. Attorney; Andree, a school psychologist; Pamala, a T. V. ad producer; and Alafair, a law professor and published novelist.
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James Lee Burke Bibliography
Dave Robicheaux Series
- The Neon Rain - 1987
- Heaven's Prisoners - 1988
- Black Cherry Blues - 1989
- A Morning for Flamingos - 1990
- A Stained White Radiance - 1992
- In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead - 1993
- Dixie City Jam - 1994
- Burning Angel - 1995
- Cadillac Jukebox - 1996
- Sunset Limited - 1998
- Purple Cane Road - 2000
- Jolie Blon's Bounce - 2002
- Last Car to Elysian Fields - 2003
- Crusader's Cross - 2005
- Pegasus Descending - 2006
- The Tin Roof Blowdown - 2007
- Swan Peak - 2008
- The Glass Rainbow - 2010
- Creole Belle - 2012
- Light of the World - 2013
- Robicheaux - January 2018
- The New Iberia Blues - January 2019
- A Private Cathedral - 2020
Hackberry Holland Series
- Lay Down My Sword and Shield - 1971
- Rain Gods - 2009
- Feast Day of Fools - 2011
- House of the Rising Sun - 2015
Holland Family Series
- Wayfaring Stranger - 2014
- The Jealous Kind - 2016
- Another Kind of Eden - 2021
- Every Cloak Rolled in Blood - 2022
Billy Bob Holland Series
- Cimarron Rose - 1997
- Heartwood - 1999
- Bitterroot - 2001
- In the Moon of Red Ponies - 2004
Stand-Alone Novels
- Half of Paradise - 1965
- To The Bright and Shining Sun - 1970
- Two for Texas - 1982
- The Lost Get-Back Boogie - 1986
- White Doves at Morning - 2002
Short Story Collections
- The Convict - 1985
- Jesus Out to Sea - 2007
James Lee Burke Awards
- 1988 - John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction
- 1990 - Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel of the year for Black Cherry Blues
- 1998 - Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel of the year for Cimarron Rose
- 2002 - Louisiana Writer Award for Burke's enduring contribution to the "literary intellectual heritage of Louisiana.
- 2009 - Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award.
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