Paul Walkingsky

Paul Walkingsky was trained as a traditional Native American Storyteller and frequently weaves the legends of his youth into his contemporary tales of gay romance. He was the original Director of Training for the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center and was one of the authors of the American Psychological Association’s training materials on HIV for mental health professionals. He lost his first partner to AIDS not long after they had keynoted the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam. Paul is a former college professor with a long string of academic publications and has served as summer faculty for the Kinsey Institute as a specialist on cross-cultural sexuality.

“My aunt was at an event,” he likes to relate, “and a White guy looked at her name tag and said, ‘Pearl Walinsky—that’s Polish, right?’ Walkingsky is actually an old Osage name from Oklahoma.”

Paul splits his time between Seattle and the Valley of the Sun, which sounds more impressive than the outskirts of Phoenix. He’s illustrated several children’s books, and has retold and illustrated a Native American Origin of Corn legend for an anthology of transgender-focused stories. He felt it was an appropriate choice, since the corn plant has both male and female flowers on the same stalk. Paul is a NY Times and USA Today best-selling author and has won several writing awards. He’s known for a light comedic touch in all his writings.