Carolyn Burke was born in Sydney, spent many years in Paris, and now lives in California. Her 2011 No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf, published by Knopf and Bloomsbury, has been translated into several languages, including French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Burke’s Lee Miller: A Life, published by Knopf and Bloomsbury in 2006, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Award. Burke spent time with Lee Miller while working on her first book, Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy. The definitive biography of the expatriate artist/poet, it sparked a major Loy revival.

When the Santa Cruz-based author visited City Lights Bookstore earlier this month, ZYZZYVA Managing Editor Oscar Villalon spoke to Carolyn Burke about her newest work, Foursome, an examination of the lives of the famous artists Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury. Burke also read from the book, which you can hear in the video at the 3 minute mark.