Jeff Burlingame - Writing Career

Writing Career

Jeff Burlingame began his professional writing career as a general assignment reporter for The Willapa Harbor Herald newspaper in Raymond, Washington. In 1997, he began working at The Daily World becoming the Aberdeen, Washington, paper's arts and entertainment editor shortly thereafter. In that capacity, he won numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2006, Burlingame became a copy editor for The News Tribune in Tacoma.

Later that year, Burlingame’s first book, Kurt Cobain: Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind, was published. The book won recognition from the New York Public Library as a Book for the Teen Age in 2007, and received rave reviews from publications across the United States. Following the success of his first book, Burlingame began working as a full-time author. In the years since, he has written more than a dozen other books, including an unauthorized biography of Malcolm X, which was nominated for a coveted NAACP Image Award, alongside the works of Walter Dean Myers, Sharon Draper, Rita Williams-Garcia, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In 2012, Burlingame was once again nominated for an Image Award, this time for his in-depth biography of Olympic track and field legend Jesse Owens, and traveled to Los Angeles, California, for the award ceremonies, held at the historic Shrine Auditorium, in February 2012. Burlingame won the award for Best Literary Work: Youth/Teens, besting fellow authors Walter Dean Myers, Kekla Magoon, Jerdine Nolen, and Nikki Grimes.