Anyone who is familiar with James Lee Burke and Detective Dave Robicheaux, knows of New Iberia and our fascinating blend of heritage, hospitality and history. Burke, grew up in New Iberia, playing and fishing in the many water holes that populate the area. His hometown is clearly very dear to him, as evidenced by the prominent part that his fictionalized version of New Iberia plays in each of his novels.

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Burke says his favorite place in New Iberia is Main Street, where his grandfather once lived. The Main Street that Burke describes as the most beautiful in the country is just part of the attraction of New Iberia, a city having "southern manners and at the same time is a first-name kind of place." Dave Robicheaux’s descriptions of the area give Burke’s readers a small taste of what Iberia is like.

"I look down from the window at the brick paved street in the morning’s blue light, the colonnades over the sidewalks, a black man pushing a wooden cart laden with strawberries from under the overhang of a dark green oak tree. The scene looks like a postcard mailed from the nineteenth century."
—A Stained White Radiance, James Lee Burke

Burke, who splits his time between New Iberia and Missoula, Montana, is one of only two authors to win two Edgar Awards. His novel The Lost Get Back Boogie was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.