Media in Minutes

Annie Burky: Freelance Health Tech Writer for Fierce Healthcare

• Angela Tuell • Season 4 • Episode 21

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In today’s episode, Annie Burky, a journalist and podcaster from Colorado, discusses her diverse career path where she began as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda and China, then transitioned to journalism, becoming the managing editor of Ms. Mayhem magazine. Burky later studied at NYU and worked at Fierce Healthcare, covering health tech and AI. She is now pursuing an MFA in fiction at the University of Idaho while freelancing, particularly focusing on healthcare and AI.
Follow Annie’s life and work here: X: https://www.x.com/annieburky   
Fierce Healthcare: https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/person/annie-burky 

NYU Journalism and Creative Writing: https://www.sps.nyu.edu/professional-pathways/topics/writing-and-communications/journalism-and-creative-nonfiction.html 

Ms. Mayhem: https://www.msmayhem.com/ 

Society of Professional Journalists: https://www.spj.org/ 

Peace Corps: https://www. peacecorps.gov/ 

Let Girls Learn: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/letgirlslearn 

The Met (MSU  Denver): https://www.mymetmedia.com/entity/metropolitan/ 

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: https://www.gjsentinel.com/ 

David Foster Wallace: https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/ 

Madison Lauderbauch: https://www.msmayhem.com/author/madison/ 

Esteban Fernandez: https://www.msmayhem.com/author/esteban/ 

Ali Mai: https://www.msmayhem.com/author/acmwatkins/ 

Polina Saran: https://www.msmayhem.com/author/polinasaran/ 

NYU Gallatin School: https://gallatin.nyu.edu/ 

Mary Quigley: https://journalism.nyu.edu/faculty/full-time-faculty/ 

Salman Rushdie: https://www.salmanrushdie.com/ 

Dave King: https://gallatin.nyu.edu/people/faculty/dmk6.html 

Podnosis podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podnosis/id1698542522 

Radiolab: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radiolab/id152249110 

NPR: https://www.npr.org/ 

Queen’s Daily Eagle: https://queenseagle.com/ 

Confluence Journal: https://www.confluence-aglsp.org/ 

Gallatin Review: https://gallatin.nyu.edu/academics/undergraduate/writing/gr.html 

Thank you for listening!  Please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to the Media in Minutes podcast here or anywhere you get your podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/media-in-minutes/id1555710662  

Angela Tuell:

Welcome to Media in Minutes. This is your host, Angela Tuell. This podcast features in-depth interviews with those who report on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens and give us a glimpse into their world. From our studio here at Communications Redefined, this is Media in Minutes. In today's episode, we are talking with Annie Burky. Annie is a journalist, writer and podcaster from Colorado. She earned her MA in Journalism and Creative Writing from NYU, and is now pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in fiction from the University of Idaho. She currently freelances for Fierce Healthcare, where she previously held the position of health tech staff writer. Annie stepped into journalism as the managing editor of the Denver based Miss Mayhem magazine, where her reporting was acknowledged by the Society of Professional Journalists as one of the best of the West. Her work has also been published in Queens Daily Eagle, the Gallatin review and Confluence journal, among others. Hi Annie, thanks so much for joining us today.

Annie Burky:

Thank you so much for having me. It's great to chat.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, I'm excited to talk with you about your background and career. I'd love to start with your work for the Peace Corps. How did you decide to join? And I would love to hear more about your experience and work while serving you were in some fantastic places.

Annie Burky:

Yes, I so originally as a Peace Corps volunteer, my first stint was as a literacy specialist in Uganda. I studied international affairs in undergrad at CU Boulder, and I originally when I when I was accepted to CU, I wanted to be a journalism major, but between the summer of graduating high school and starting at CU, they discontinued their journalism major.

Angela Tuell:

No way, after you were accepted and going there for -

Annie Burky:

Yes, which I was probably gonna go there anyways, it was very close to my parents house, and I have a deep Colorado pride.

Angela Tuell:

Okay.

Annie Burky:

But so I needed a pivot. And so I pivoted to international affairs, which I really loved. I wanted to study another language. I was always a bit of a history nerd, and was deeply dissatisfied with, like, the Eurocentric education that I got in high school. And so international affairs just worked out. And I really -also growing up in Colorado, you're very comfortable backpacking, living a more rugged lifestyle. And so I felt really comfortable with the idea of joining the Peace Corps and living in a very rural setting.

Angela Tuell:

Okay.

Annie Burky:

So Uganda is beautiful. It's an incredible country, with a lot of Ugandans working hard to bring about, like the next generation of leaders. So it was such an honor to work there. I was a literacy specialist. I wrote a lot of grants to get books to a few schools that I was working closely with, but I also worked in different like national and regional conferences. I think the one that I was I most enjoyed was called Let Girls Learn, which was a Michelle Obama initiative.

Angela Tuell:

Uh huh.

Annie Burky:

So for that, I interviewed different organizations, youth organizations throughout the country, and like, compiled all their best practices. So I think that's like, kind of where I got this journalism bug where I was interviewing people over the country, and I was trying to bring that knowledge together to later be disseminated.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah.

Annie Burky:

Yeah. It was really wonderful. It was a great experience.

Angela Tuell:

Wow. So then where else were you?

Annie Burky:

So after completing my first two years, so Peace Corps is usually 27 months.

Angela Tuell:

Okay.

Annie Burky:

After you complete that first tour, I guess one could call it, then you can be a Response Volunteer. So after I completed my time in Uganda, I was offered a position to teach at universities in China as an RPCV, a Response Volunteer. And so I lived in northern China outside of Harbin, which is extremely cold, and then lived in Chongqing. So I was there in China for a total of two years.

Angela Tuell:

Wow. What did you learn during or I guess, what were you surprised to learn during your experiences with the Peace Corps?

Annie Burky:

What I was surprised to learn? Oh, I mean, a million things. Being a creative writer and an avid reader, you know, I think of the David Foster Wallace wall walls quote of not knowing the water that we swim in. And I think living in different cultures with history so different than the ones that I was raised within and speaking languages, my Mandarin is quite passible, and my French is still relatively okay.

Angela Tuell:

Wow, that's great.

Annie Burky:

There were like, whole dimensions of knowing that were open to me, even just like the structure of Mandarin is so different than English and so having to think in a different way, um, was mind boggling. And, I mean, I could list for you a million things I was surprised about, but it's it's everything. It was a life changing experience.

Angela Tuell:

Yes. And so after the Peace Corps, is that when you went to NYU?

Annie Burky:

Yeah. So um, roughly so. I had to leave China very quickly because covid started.

Angela Tuell:

Oh yes.

Annie Burky:

Yeah. So I was, it was Spring Festival, which is Chinese New Year, 2020, and the virus really started taking off in that week. And I called a friend at the embassy and said, I know you can't tell me exactly what's going on, but can you tell me when I need to leave? And she said, You need to leave.

Angela Tuell:

Wow.

Annie Burky:

Within 12 hours, I was I was packed, and I was on a plane, and so I wasn't I hadn't been accepted to NYU yet. I went back to my parents house and was in this very odd state where China was being wracked by COVID and it had not hit the US yet. So I felt like I was in a different reality than everyone around me.

Angela Tuell:

Right.

Annie Burky:

And actually at that time is when I properly stepped into journalism. My brother, he went to Jay school at Metropolitan University in Denver, and was the EIC of the Met the school's newspaper, and he had been offered a position as a sports reporter at the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, where he still works. But he as he was leaving, he said, You know, I have some friends who are starting an online publication, and they're interested in a lot of things you're interested in. And so that publication was called Ms. Mayhem. I started attending these early meetings to get the publication off the ground, and these more seasoned journalists than me realize that I am a little bit obsessive, compulsive and very organized.

Angela Tuell:

Which is a good thing for journalism, too.

Annie Burky:

Yeah, they're all good skills. My therapist would, you know, maybe suggest I tamper some of them, but and I was just like, obsessively a hard worker, and so they brought me on and made me Managing Editor.

Angela Tuell:

Wow, wow. And so you went from, you know, wanting or wanting to be a journalist for for a while, but but thrown into a managing editor role. What was that like?

Annie Burky:

I had a lot of managerial experience at that point. I've worked since, actually, since I was 14, in mostly after school programs. And so by that point, I hadn't. Before I had left the US, I was a director for an after school program, and so I think that's what got me in the door, is I knew how to organize, I knew how to delegate, but I still knew how to, you know, be kind, to help lead the writers. And I think the thing that I really had to learn was how to be a journalist.

Angela Tuell:

Right.

Annie Burky:

That was a learning curve. And the my fellow journalists at Ms. Mayhem, Madison Lauterbach, Esteban Fernandez, Ali Mai, they were really generous with their time, and maybe it's because we were entering lockdown and they had nothing else to do.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah.

Annie Burky:

But they, through a lot of edits, they really taught me how to be a journalist. So it was a whirlwind, but it was a hugely transformative experience, and I really thank them for taking the time to tell me, nope, this is the lead, nope. You want to move this up here. Like it was kind of a tough learning curve.

Angela Tuell:

So that was during, so that was right before Covid was really hitting here. Did it affect the outlet?

Annie Burky:

Yes, very much so. So we were mostly working remotely, and we were trying to just get off the ground, you know? We were trying to interview people.

Angela Tuell:

Right.

Annie Burky:

But, and we didn't want to be in the same room with anyone, and no one wanted to be in the same room with us. I because I just rushed home from-

Angela Tuell:

China, right?

Annie Burky:

Yeah, I was living with my parents, who were in their mid 60s, and I was terrified, you know, right? So afraid to bring anything home. So we had to get really creative. We started think the first few stories that I did were multimedia, video stories with Polina Saran who is still like a very active videographer in Denver, and absolutely brilliant. And so we started finding restaurants and talking to them about how they were faring. I don't know if you remember, in those early days, a lot of restaurants were closing.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, yes.

Annie Burky:

So we found ways to, like, go and meet those people that had like poured their life savings, in some cases, into these restaurants that were just getting off the ground, and met them outside of their shop six feet away, still with masks on. Like we made it work. We figured it out.

Angela Tuell:

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I wanted to ask, going back just a little bit, you had mentioned you wanted to be a journalist before college, and your brother is a journalist. What sparked this interest?

Annie Burky:

Yeah, I think, no, we get that question a lot. Our Father freelanced a bit in his younger years. He was a teacher when we were kids, and then he became a utility worker.

Angela Tuell:

Okay.

Annie Burky:

And he had always taught us to love learning, to love reading. We were read to every single night, and he always like, I don't know if he knew he was doing this, but we would, you know, watch a movie, and he would say, see, look how the story is coming full circle. Look what that character's development has done. So I think it just became to reference David Foster Wallace, who's not a person I support generally as a human again, with the water we swam in.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, wow. It's crazy how the parents can have such an influence, right? Or a positive, a positive influence.

Annie Burky:

Totally. I think it's like a statistic that it's like you have a 50% chance of following your parents into their career path and and so I think there is this like in, maybe is what we saw as, like, not fully realized career path of our father and both of us kind of stumbled down that road.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah. So after Ms. Mayhem, where did you go then?

Annie Burky:

Yeah, so, um, well, in I think Ms. Mayhem was probably around like seven months old at the time, but I was still working for them, still remotely, because everything was so remote. When I was accepted to NYU and headed off to New York, which was a wild time to be in New York, it was still very shut down.

Angela Tuell:

Yes.

Annie Burky:

The Square was empty.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah.

Annie Burky:

Which is wild and like, truly a once in a lifetime experience, which it was terrifying. It was a scary time. But so I went to New York and started taking classes online, but I was still working part time for Ms. Mayhem and still managing writers from there. I learned under brilliant writers, Mary Quigley from the Huffington Post and Solmon Rushdie, actually, I took a class with. He was wonderful. I took a journalism as literature course with him. Dave King is a novelist and short story writer who I took classes with. And so this was all through NYU s Gallatin School.

Angela Tuell:

Okay. Wow.

Annie Burky:

Which is an interdisciplinary program that That is what brought me in that direction, offers Coverdale fellowships, which are specifically and that gave me space to take classes in Journalism and fellowships for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. Creative Writing.

Angela Tuell:

Wow, that's great. I mean, you were around some fantastic people to learn from, definitely. Yeah, so how did you get into healthcare, technology, journalism, then?

Annie Burky:

Yeah, that's a good question. So there was around the NYU campus, there are all these flyers for something called Life SCI, S-C-I, NYC, which was an initiative from the city's government to get more graduates into the life sciences.

Angela Tuell:

Okay.

Annie Burky:

Mostly it was, you know, people really in the sciences, not people like myself. But on one of the flyers, it said journalism. And so I went to one of the events, which I believe was still online, because a lot of things were online.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah.

Annie Burky:

And I sent a direct message to the person hosting the event and said, I'm a journalist. I saw on one of the flyers that journal was, journalism was mentioned. Is that actually true? Because I feel like I might be in the wrong space. And he said, No, you're in the right space. Shoot me an email here. And so he started connecting me with organizations that were looking for journalists who wanted to write about the sciences.

Angela Tuell:

Mmmm.

Annie Burky:

And so I was connected with fierce healthcare and started applying for positions there.

Angela Tuell:

Wow, it's crazy how things work out, isn't it, or how they work, how you get there? For those who aren't very familiar with Fierce Healthcare, tell us a little bit more about the publication.

Annie Burky:

Yeah. So Fierce Healthcare covers like a wide range of beats within the healthcare industry. It's largely an insider publication. So I was working on the health tech beat, which is a really interesting, continually evolving but especially when I was writing about it, beat to be writing about. There's also biotech. I worked with people that were focusing on payers and providers. So there was a little bit of cross pollination, where I was sometimes write in other areas, especially payers, was an area I was writing about more, but mostly health and technology.

Angela Tuell:

Okay, what were some of your or some of the stories that you most enjoyed working on?

Annie Burky:

At Fierce I was really interested...So I, when did I start? I started working there in September, and the following, oh, I think it was February when the new chat GPT dropped.

Angela Tuell:

Mmmm.

Annie Burky:

And that was huge. That was all I was writing about for weeks. Um, that was really interesting, and it was, it was scary. I think it's still scary for a lot of people, but I think my MO has always been to, like, go closer to the thing that scares me and try to understand it.

Angela Tuell:

Yes.

Annie Burky:

So it really helped my anxiety about AI and write a ton of articles about it.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, and explore it more. I mean, I love that's what I love about journalism, too, almost mostly having to become an expert very quickly. And maybe you're not technically an expert, but, you know, learn everything you can on that topic to be able to write about it. And I always, I always love that part.

Annie Burky:

Yeah, I like having a tight beat, because it it feels, even though, you know you're writing two to three articles a day, which was what I was doing at Fierce.

Angela Tuell:

That's a lot.

Annie Burky:

It was a lot. And some of them are, like, you know, very light reporting. But and also, the management at Fierce was so great that I really loved my editor, and she made our work as easy and exciting as it could be. So it made it very doable. But I and I think you would like when you're in a tight beat, it's not that you're learning something new for every article. You know, so many of my articles were about AI,

Angela Tuell:

Mmmm, true. and so at that point, like they were really building off one another, and I was in that mind space, or even like cyber security was and is coming up a lot. And so I was always thinking about that and always moving in that space. So when, you know, a new hospital had a cyber leak, I was already thinking about it, and it made it pretty easy to dive back in and, you know, bust out a seven, 700 word article. Right. That makes sense, yeah. And so you are not or you are no longer internal at fierce, but you are still writing for them, right?

Annie Burky:

Yes, yeah, they were wonderful. I was accepted to an MFA program at the University of Idaho, which is where I currently am, in Moscow, Idaho, which is very different from New York City.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, wait, you just stop there. How did you decide this and why Idaho?

Annie Burky:

Yeah, good question. Yesterday, two people asked me that they're like Idaho. How did that happen? Yeah, good question. So University of Idaho has a really strong MFA program and creative writing. It is a three year fully funded program, which are very, very few in the country. They only accept about six people a year.

Angela Tuell:

Wow, what?

Annie Burky:

Yeah, so it was very competitive, and not something one can say no to.

Angela Tuell:

Right. So you apply, not sure that you really want or not that you really 100% are going to do it right or get accepted. And then when you get accepted, you have to say yes.

Annie Burky:

Oh yeah. No, I didn't - my mentors at NYU, specifically Dave King, who has really been a close mentor of mine, he said, like, you need to start applying now, because it takes two to three years and you kind of figure out how you need to, like, tweak your stories and work on things over that time period. So I was originally waitlisted, and I took that as a win. I was like this - This is incredible. I can't believe they're even

Angela Tuell:

Yeah. looking at my stuff. And so when I got that call, I was very surprised, and it was a really difficult decision to make. I really loved working at Fierce. I really loved working out there under Heather Landy, my editor, and I was honestly quite afraid to tell her, because I didn't want her to think I was ungrateful, because she had taught me so much. And when I told her, you know, I made it clear, like I would love to freelance for you all, I really love Fierce, and she was hugely supportive and made me feel strong in my decision. So I I think she was really generous with that, and it's made our freelancing relationship very smooth. That's fantastic. So what type of stories are you focused on now in the, the freelancing role?

Annie Burky:

So I'm working on, I mean, whatever comes up for Heather that she needs covering is still a lot of AI stuff, but a lot of like health check wearables. Now with AI you know, I think oftentimes what people talk about are like chat bots on providers interfaces or something like that. And, yeah, those are present but like a lot of AI is being used to sift through big data, and that just unlocks so many doors for healthcare and so that, that is a lot of what I have written about, and what I continue to imagine myself writing about for Fierce is how this technology can be used in ways that you know you and I as patients may never realize. Like something there's something like value based care, which is, like a different payment model than fee for service, which is what most payers and insurers use, but something like value based care, which is, you know, a different incentive model where, instead of saying, like, okay, provider, Blue Cross and Blue Shield will pay you this much to give Annie a knee replacement. They are instead going to say, like, we want Annie to be as healthy as possible. Let's look at Annie long term and try to get her in the healthiest space. And therefore, like, decrease the amount of physical interventions that are happening.

Angela Tuell:

Right.

Annie Burky:

And that can only really happen with big data, and that can really only happen with these good AI models that are being able to sift through the data and find the long term repercussions of something like a knee replacement. So that is a lot of what I'm writing about now, and it is still surprising the things that I'm seeing AI be able to do that makes it a really exciting area to be writing about.

Angela Tuell:

It is definitely fascinating. 100%. I do have to ask, because much of our audience are PR professionals. When working with PR professionals, how can we most help you with your stories and to get ideas in front of you? What is most helpful?

Annie Burky:

That's a good question. It's a little bit different as a freelancer, I don't get pummeled as much as I did before.

Angela Tuell:

Pummeled is a good word.

Annie Burky:

Pummeled is exactly what you felt like.

Angela Tuell:

Right, I'm sure. Awe, sorry.

Annie Burky:

And I understand, like, I understand where it comes from. And I think that was, it was a shock stepping in to especially at Fierce. It was, you know, just like an easy, 100 emails a day. And it's, it's hard to sift through, and at times it would be frustrating, because it's like, okay, I'm not even able to look at everyone's email in a really involved way and really question everyone. And so I, but I also understand from the perspective of PR professionals what is being asked of them. So I think I developed some relationships with certain PR professionals that I felt they were respecting me and they were respecting my time, and we were trying to both, like, meet each other where we were at. Definitely calling me on weekends, I don't think is helpful.

Angela Tuell:

Oh no. Who does that? Don't call out names, but that's not okay.

Annie Burky:

Everyone was -

Angela Tuell:

It's not a breaking news stories that you're working on, and need an answer for, you know.

Annie Burky:

Yeah, which sometimes that does happen, and sometimes, you know, it's a Saturday night, and we have to figure out something right now and it's going to happen. But sometimes that wasn't the case. And I understand that everyone is in a difficult position, but I, you know, I kind of follow, like the social worker maxim of meet people where they're at.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah.

Annie Burky:

So I tried to do that with PR professionals. And I I always just ask that PR professionals do the same with us, of asking, understanding that we really are trying to find the best sources for our story and make sure that the best sources are being pitched.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, yes, and that's, that's great advice, especially the relationships. I mean, that's what public relations is, you know.

Annie Burky:

Exactly.

Angela Tuell:

So I really think we need, we always need to take a step back and look at those relationships and building those relationships, rather than just mass sending ideas to journalists, you know. Yeah, so with you in school right now, again, where are you hoping to see your career go?

Annie Burky:

I would really love to get back into journalism full time once I finish this program and then continue writing my own fiction in my free time. I would love to find a way to, like, integrate all these different parts of my experience, something you know, covering international health, I think would be incredibly interesting. I really am interested in health. I write, even in my fiction, I write a lot about the body and a lot about health care. I which is funny, coming out of Fierce, like a lot of my stories are actually medical settings.

Angela Tuell:

That is.

Annie Burky:

Yeah, and it's something that I've always been drawn to when I think, kind of, I don't always bring this up, but kind of, my Batman origin story is that when I was a teenager, I had cancer.

Angela Tuell:

Ugh.

Annie Burky:

And so I think that has, like, pushed me down this road. That's what made it so important to write about healthcare at Fierce and always kind of the lens that that I view my writing through. And so I think moving forward, I would love to stay in that realm, but find a way to like, integrate my myriad experiences.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, I love that. I always think bringing in your personal experience, or just having that personal experience adds an extra special trying to think of the right way to say it adds an extra special touch to writing. You know.

Annie Burky:

Yeah, you understand depth, like healthcare is the most personal thing we do for other people. And really understanding the stakes of that, and having been in very immersive healthcare environments at a young age, you understand what good healthcare can be, and that there is still hope for that in this country, but there is a lot of work to be done.

Angela Tuell:

That's good to hear, that you see that hope. That's, that's good to hear.

Annie Burky:

I do think it exists.

Angela Tuell:

Great. Good. Before we go, I'd love to ask about your work as a podcaster. I saw that you're a podcaster as well, so please tell us more.

Annie Burky:

Yeah, so that's an area I'm trying to move more into. When I was working at fierce I was working with Teresa Carey on Fierce Healthcare's Podgnosis podcast, and I so enjoy doing it. I was surprised by I mean, I guess it's not surprising, I obsessively listen to podcasts.

Angela Tuell:

Okay.

Annie Burky:

Just constantly, you know, walking from the living room to my office, I'm listening to podcasts, and I'm impressed with people that don't need that constant feed into their brain.

Angela Tuell:

Right.

Annie Burky:

But yeah, I was listening to, like, all of Radiolabs backlog, and, you know, I come from an NPR family, so there's a deep respect for audio.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah.

Annie Burky:

But working with Teresa was really, really enjoyable, and it just felt like such a natural fit and a natural placement. So I am sending out some pitches now. I'm working on a story about Rocky Flats in Colorado, which is a previous nuclear arms facility very close to where I was born. Maybe, or maybe not, cancers in the area. So, um...

Angela Tuell:

Wow, yes.

Annie Burky:

Yeah, like, yeah. I mean, healthcare bleeds into everything, so I'm looking on finding a home for that story right now. It's just it's such a growing part of media, and there's so much fear about the future of journalism, which I think is really valid. You know, my brother is a local journalist, and his newsroom is getting sliced about every six months.

Angela Tuell:

Oh yes.

Annie Burky:

Yeah, it's terrifying. But it, but podcasts are still there, and they're still doing well, and it's how people it fits into how people live their lives. I think it makes a lot of sense to move into podcasts more. And so that's, that's kind of what I have my eye on moving forward.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, and you mentioned pitching that story. So are you working, are you writing for other outlets as well?

Annie Burky:

Not currently. I have been during the summers. So a part of our program at U of I is to also be teaching first year composition. So I am also teaching while I'm taking classes. I have about 40 students.

Angela Tuell:

Oh, wow.

Annie Burky:

Yeah, I have some papers to grade after this podcast.

Angela Tuell:

You're not busy at all, right? Teaching, going to school, freelancing. You have like three full time jobs.

Annie Burky:

It's too much, too much, one might say. But yeah, summer comes around, I will. I'm looking back at some old outlets that I've worked for. I worked for the Queen's Daily Eagle a bit in New York. So I'm looking at some of their sister publications to reach out to now.

Angela Tuell:

That's great. You mentioned fiction. Are they short stories? Novels? What are you working on?

Annie Burky:

Yeah, so I'm mostly writing short stories right now. My, I mean to bring this like thread of health in the body all the way through my master's thesis at NYU was a short story collection which was partnered with a research essay about body horror in the work of Catholic female authors. So thanks, Flannery O'Connor, Toni Morrison actually was a devout Catholic, which few people know, and so my stories now are still kind of in that vein. I just wrote a story as my first story about writing, my first story about cancer. So there's about a patient being in the hospital as a teenager, and of course, being a teenager actually caring more about, you know, the person that won't text you back and wanting to watch out of me, like another story I'm working on about a nurse in a Starbucks that's roughly all that happens. Oh, it's still in the same vein. I'm still turning over the same stone over and over and over again.

Angela Tuell:

I love it. Do you, do you put these online or publish them at all?

Annie Burky:

So some of them have been published. Some of my short stories were published in Confluence, which is a journal out of NYU and the Gallatin Review. I have a few online, but these are two stories that I'm sending out right now actually. They're they're pretty fresh and new, which is exciting. I think that's the benefit of an immersive program like this, is it's kind of a gauntlet, and your writing changes really quickly, and you're able to get closer to what feels like a true writerly voice for yourself.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, I love that. We will definitely link to some of those in our show notes. And I have to ask how our listeners can connect with you online.

Annie Burky:

Yeah. So actually, Annie Burky, A-N-N-I-E, B-U-R-K-Y. I am the only one in America.

Angela Tuell:

Wow. How do you know that for sure?

Annie Burky:

There's actually, there's a website, I believe it's called one in America. You can look up your name. It's a very niche website. I actually learned about this website through Radiolab, because I've listened to all their episodes. And you can see how many people have your name in the country. And my last name is actually quite rare. So on any social media, it's just Annie Burky. I'm pretty easy to find.

Angela Tuell:

Thank you so much for your time. It was so fascinating.

Annie Burky:

Yeah, thank you so much. Thanks for talking.

Angela Tuell:

That's all for this episode of Media in Minutes, a podcast by Communications Redefined. Please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to our show. We'd love to hear what you think. You can find more at CommunicationsRedefined.com/podcast. I'm your host, Angela Tuell. Talk to you next time.