5 minute read
Paul Burston
Alex Klineberg gets up to speed with one of the UK’s most influential LGBTQ+ writers, and founder of The Polari First Book Prize
Paul Burston has written six novels, including thrillers and state of the nation novels, and columns for The Guardian and The Sunday Times. Burston’s AIDS activism was dramatised by Alexis Gregory in his play Riot Act.
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He’s also the founder of the long-running LGBTQ+ literary salon, Polari, which started as a modest event in Soho in 2007 and grew to be one of the most interesting literary salons in London. Polari moved to the Southbank Centre – there have also been numerous national tours. The success of the event led to The Polari First Book Prize and The Polari Prize, which are essentially the LGBTQ+ answer to The Booker Prize. Many literary careers have received a significant boost on account of the award. We caught up with Paul to find out more about Polari: “2020 marked the tenth anniversary of The Polari First Book Prize, which I founded back in 2011. It’s the only book prize in the UK dedicated to LGBTQ+ writing and something I’m immensely proud of. In 2019, we added a second prize for non-debut books. Our winners in 2020 were Amrou Al-Kadhi, for their memoir Life As A Unicorn, and Kate Davies, for her novel In At The Deep End.” “In fact, just before Covid-19 arrived, we were about to embark on our biggest tour yet – 22 dates, all across the UK. Obviously, our plans were affected by the pandemic. Some events moved online. A few went ahead as planned between the first two lockdowns, under strict social distancing measures. Others have been postponed until later in the year. We have an exciting event planned in Brighton and will go ahead with that just as soon as we’re able.” Polari events are currently taking place via Zoom. There have been four live-streamed events with more to come: “I think online events can work if you adapt them to suit the circumstances. Polari on stage is quite theatrical and performative. Polari online is more of an intimate affair, with readings and conversation.”
Hosting Polari online has opened up new possibilities. Writers from Spain, Lisbon and Lesbos have been able to join the events. “On February 3 we’re running an online event in conjunction with Hertfordshire Libraries. On the bill we have Juno Roche, who was shortlisted for the 2020 Polari Prize for her brilliant book Trans Power.
JUNO ROCHE - FEBRUARY 3
We also have poets PJ Samuels and Joelle Taylor, who are both superb.
PJ SAMUELS - FEBRUARY 3
We have online events planned with Huddersfield Literature Festival in March, featuring our current prize winners.” Writers can keep on writing, but performers and event organisers have had to be very creative to stay busy in lockdown. When we return to some kind of normality, you should definitely check out a Polari event. LGBTQ+ nights out don’t have to be about hitting the clubs and bars, you can have a civilised drink and listen to a wide range of authors discussing their work. You’ll wake up in the morning without that strange, sinking feeling. You may even learn something, or be inspired to embark on a long-delayed literary venture yourself. “For me, Polari has always been as much about community as it is about culture. Personally, I can’t wait to be back on stage again with a room full of people out to enjoy the best in LGBTQ+ literary talent,” Paul explained. In lockdown, Paul has been looking back over a very eventful life and writing his memoirs. The book is sure to be packed with fascinating anecdotes. As a journalist, he’s encountered many luminaries over the years, from Blondie to Vivienne Westwood.
“I found myself working on the memoir I’ve been putting off writing for so long – largely because it deals with some pretty traumatic events, not least living through the AIDS epidemic in the 80s and early 90s, when I was a member of the activist group ACT-UP. The current pandemic inevitably brought back memories of that earlier one. The timing felt right, so I cracked on with the memoir and have now almost finished it.”
Paul’s memoir will be an important contribution to LGBTQ+ literature, and it’s especially fitting to be discussing the memoir during LGBTQ+ History Month: “It’s a book about survival – as a gay man and a survivor of abuse – and also about the times I lived through, which were pretty seismic in terms of LGBTQ+ rights. When I came out in 1985, gay men had very few rights. We were barely legal. You could still be fired from your job for being gay or arrested for kissing another man in public. Men were still being imprisoned for ‘crimes’ no heterosexual would be. ‘Gross indecency’ only applied to gay and bisexual men. It was the crime Oscar Wilde was charged with way back in 1895 and remained enshrined in law for over a century afterwards. If you’d told me in the 1980s that one day I’d be able to marry my same-sex partner, I’d never have believed you. “From the moment I came out, I was always right in the thick of things - first as an activist, then as a journalist documenting the changing times for Time Out, The Guardian and various other publications. I also wrote books and struggled with various addictions. I had some adventures and some misadventures. I met many of my idols and I nearly died twice. It’s all in there.”
Now we’re really looking forward to reading the memoir. In the meantime, you can check out Paul’s other books, including his recent bestseller The Black Path. more info
