A freelance writer, poet, playwright and historian living in Armidale, New South Wales, Paul Burns grew up in the Sydney suburb of Clempton Park and went to school at De La Salle colleges located in Marrickville, Cronulla and Kingsgrove, and later attended Belmore TAFE. He spent most of his later teens and early twenties in Kings Cross, where he wrote and performed poetry, and acted in and produced plays (mainly Beckett). In 1975 Burns won the ABC Soundstage Radio Play Competition for Memories are Made of Fireworks. He had a second radio play, The Remarkable Adventures of Mr Richard Piloting, A Highwayman of Eminence, produced by the ABC in 1976.
Between late 1975 and 1978 Burns lived in Bermagui, on the far south coast of New South Wales, after which he moved to Armidale in the New England tablelands. He was awarded as BA, BA (Hons) and MA in history from the University of New England. Between 1977 and 1982 he also concentrated on writing and performing poetry in Armidale, Sydney and Queensland. His book, The Brisbane Line, which was based on his MA thesis, examines political opportunism and national security in Australia between 1942 and 1945. It was published by Allen and Unwin in 1998. Now an independent historian he writes on early colonial Australian history.
Paul Burns's work has been published in various Kings Cross underground magazines, Poetry Australia, the Australian, Neucleus, Grafitti, Kangaroo, and in the Well-Tempered Wombat poetry series.
