ELISE BURKE
WRITER, EDITOR, TEACHER, HUMAN-ANIMAL
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What People Say
“‘Beam On’ does so much: it asks questions about perception and trust and memory, makes apt use of an unusual form, inclines us (like the characters) to both laugh and cry. Certain subjects have been so worked over in fiction that it’s exceptionally hard to cast them in a new light; cancer is one of them, and it’s to this author’s enormous credit that by digging into small moments, this story manages to surprise at every turn.”
— Rebecca Makkai, Author of The Great Believers (2018), I Have Some Questions for You (2023), on Burke’s story “Beam On”, selected by Makkai as the 2018 Mary C. Mohr Award Winner in Fiction
Elise Burke 