James Lee Burke (born December 5, 1936) is an American author, best known for hisDave Robicheaux series. He has wonEdgar Awards for his novelsBlack Cherry Blues (1990),Cimarron Rose (1998), andFlags on the Bayou (2024).[1] He has also been presented with the Grand Master Award from theMystery Writers of America. The Robicheaux character has been portrayed twice on screen, first byAlec Baldwin (Heaven's Prisoners) and thenTommy Lee Jones (In the Electric Mist). His 1986 novelThe Lost Get-back Boogie was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Wirt Williams, reviewing Burke's first novel,Half of Paradise (1965), in theNew York Times, compared his writing toJean-Paul Sartre andErnest Hemingway, but concluded "Mr. Burkes' literary forebear isThomas Hardy."[2]
Burke's 1982 novel,Two for Texas, was made into a 1998 TV movie of the same name. Burke has also written five miscellaneous crime novels (includingTwo for Texas), two short-story collections, four books starring protagonistTexas attorney Billy Bob Holland, four books starring Billy Bob's cousin Texas sheriff Hackberry Holland, and two books starring Weldon Avery Holland, grandson of legendary Texas lawman Hackberry Holland.
He worked in a variety of jobs over the years, while books he had written were rejected, and books he had published went out of print. At various times, he worked as a truck driver for theU.S. Forest Service, as a newspaper reporter, as a social worker onSkid Row, Los Angeles, as a land surveyor in Colorado, in the Louisiana State unemployment system, and in theJob Corps in theDaniel Boone National Forest in eastern Kentucky.[4][3]
He taught at the University of Missouri as a grad student, then at the University of Louisiana, the University of Montana, and Miami-Dade Community College, before settling inWichita, Kansas to teach atWichita State University in 1978.[5][6]
1988: Burke was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction.[14] Burke received the 2002 Louisiana Writer Award for his enduring contribution to the "literary intellectual heritage of Louisiana." The award was presented by the then-Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana,Kathleen Blanco, on November 2, 2002, at a ceremony held at the inaugural Louisiana Book Festival inBaton Rouge.
2009: Burke received the MWA's Grand Master Award.[15] A mystery novelist rarely wins both anEdgar award and a Guggenheim fellowship.
In 2024 he was named winner of theCrime Writers' Association of Britain'sDiamond Dagger award for his outstanding lifetime's contribution to the crime and mystery fiction genre.[16]
A statue of Burke was erected in downtown New Iberia, Louisiana in April of 2024.[17]
