This week, we're thrilled to welcome Alafair Burke and James Lee Burke to the Book Clubs!
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About James Lee Burke and Alafair Burke 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, college English professor, social worker on Skid Row in Los Angeles, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, and instructor in the U. S. Job Corps.
He and his wife Pearl met in graduate school and have been married 46 years, 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 novelist who has 3 novels out with Henry Holt publishing.
Burke's work has been awarded an Edgar twice for Best Crime Novel of the Year. He has also been a recipient of a Breadloaf and Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA grant. 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. His novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years, and upon publication by Louisiana State University press was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Today he and his wife live in Missoula, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana.
After graduating from Reed College and Stanford Law School, Alafair Burke clerked for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and then became a Deputy District Attorney in Portland, Oregon. As a prosecutor, she tried more than thirty cases in her first two years. She also served as a liaison to police, conducting in-service trainings, attending roll calls, and accompanying police on late-night ride-alongs. As a longtime reader and fan of crime fiction, Alafair realized that her years at the District Attorney's Office were not only important training for the practice of law and an eventual academic career, but also rich material for fiction.
Alafair might never have become an author if she had followed the advice she now gives her students about the importance of bar preparation. When she left the District Attorney's Office to move to New York, she took a summer off to study for the bar. By the end of the summer, Alafair had managed to write 200 pages of what would become my first novel, Judgment Calls. She also learned how to get a nice draw on a golf ball. And, yes, she did pass the exam.
Alafair Burke is currently a Professor at Hofstra Law School, where she teaches criminal law and procedure. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and their French Bulldog.
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