Carolyn Burke was born in Australia, spent many years in Paris, and now lives in Santa Cruz, California. She is a member of the Authors Guild and the PEN American Center.

Her Lee Miller, A Life, published in 2005 by Alfred Knopf, U.S., and Bloomsbury, U.K., was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Biography award. The Chicago Tribune gave it a cover review; People declared it “a great read”; The Guardian called it “a subtle analysis of two enigmas: Miller herself and the exhilarating and appalling century in which she lived.” It received more outstanding reviews in the U.S., U.K., Italy, Spain, and Australia. Editions Autrement published a French translation in 2007, for the centenary of Lee Miller's birth.

Burke’s interest in Miller began in Paris when she was writing Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 1996. Becoming Modern earned prominent reviews in the Times Literary Supplement (cover), the New York Times, Washington Post, the Atlantic, the New Republic, and The Nation. The definitive life of the expatriate artist/poet, it sparked a Loy revival, including a cabaret musical on her life produced at the University of Michigan Music School. Becoming Modern was listed in the “Editors’ Choice” sections of the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times.

Burke’s essays and translations have appeared in many magazines, such as Vogue, Heat, Sulfur, Art in America, (HOW)ever, and the New Yorker. Contributions to exhibition catalogs include “Lee Miller: Framing a Life,” in Roland Penrose and Lee Miller: The Surrealist and the Photographer and “Loy-alism,” in Julien Levy: Portrait of an Art Gallery. She has reviewed books for Poetry Flash, the San Jose Mercury, the San Francisco Review of Books, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Women’s Review of Books.

Burke has spoken to great acclaim at writers’ festivals and literary events in the U.S., U.K., France, and Australia. Recent appearances include campuses (Princeton, Getty Research Institute, New York University’s Maison Française, University of New South Wales, University of Sydney); radio and television in San Francisco, New York, and Sydney; and cultural groups (National Arts Club, New York; Metropolitan Club, San Francisco; Lyceum Club, Sydney; Monterey Museum of Art, San Jose Museum of Art). She is an engaging, entertaining speaker who tailors her talks to her audience.

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