Paul Burston is the author of five novels and five non-fiction books, and the editor of two short story collections.
 
His debut novel Shameless (2001) was shortlisted for the State of Britain Award. Lovers & Losers (2007) was shortlisted for a Stonewall Award. The Gay Divorcee (2009) was opted for television. The Black Path (2016) was longlisted for the Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize 2016 and was a bestseller at WHSmith.
 
He was a founding editor of Attitude magazine and has written for many publications including the Guardian, the Independent, Time Out, The Times and The Sunday Times. He has also written and presented documentaries for Channel 4.
 
In 2007 he founded London’s award-winning LGBTQ literary salon Polari and in 2011 he created The Polari First Book Prize. In 2019, a second prize was added for non debut books, sponsored by DHH Literary Agency.

In March 2016, he was featured in the British Council’s Five Films 4 Freedom Global List 2016, celebrating “33 visionary people who are promoting freedom, equality and LGBT rights around the world”.
 
His early life as an AIDS activist with ACT-UP forms part of a verbatim play, Riot Act, by Alexis Gregory.

Paul’s second crime novel The Closer I Get​ was published by Orenda Books in 2019 and in 2023 his memoir We Can Be Heroes was published by Amazon Publishing's Little A imprint. 

In June 2026 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

© Krystyna Fitzgerald-Morris