Photo credit: Tuan Ching
About Paul Russell
Paul Elliott Russell is the author of The Angels Came to Sodom in the Evening (forthcoming Fall, 2026) and seven previous novels. Two were awarded the Ferro-Grumley Award for Fiction, one was chosen as one of the 100 Best Gay and Lesbian Novels by the Triangle Publishing Group, and four were finalists for the Lambda Literary Award. His novels might best be described as dreamy reconstructions of half-recalled nightmares.
His collected short stories, Desire, will be published by The Library of Homosexual Congress in Fall, 2027.
He grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, in a neighborhood called Scenic Hills. After graduating from Raleigh-Egypt High School in 1974, he attended Oberlin College in Ohio and also spent time in Germany and London. He then went on to study at Cornell University, earning an MFA in Creative Writing in 1982 and a PhD in English in 1983. He has taught at Vassar College, The College of William & Mary, and the University of Exeter.
His nonfiction book, The Gay 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Gay Men and Lesbians, Past and Present (1995), has been translated into ten languages. He’s published poetry, essays and short fiction in such journals and anthologies as Carolina Quarterly, The Black Warrior Review, Epoch, American Short Fiction, The Barcelona Review, Gastronomica, Men on Men 4, Queer 13, and Best Food Writing 2001.
An extended print interview with him can be found in Hear Us Out: Conversations with Gay Novelists (Columbia University Press, 2004).
Paul shares an old farmhouse with
several supernatural cats
and in his spare time tends
an unruly flower garden
that provides salad
for his frequent guests.