A Dublin native educated at University College, Dublin and Univ. de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest (France), Bourke has taught at Harvard, University of Minnesota, University College, Dublin . Her Salt Water won the Frank O’Connor Award for Short Fiction in 1992, and The Burning of Bridget Cleary won The Irish Times Non-Fiction Award in 1999 and the American Conference of Irish Studies (ACIS) James S. Donnelly Prize in 2001.