Paula Brancato is a second generation Sicilian-American poet and award-winning filmmaker. Previously on faculty at the University of Southern California, SUNY Southampton, and Harvard Club of NYC, she has been published by The Kenyon Review, Mudfish, The Sourthern Review, BOMB Magazine, Georgetown Review, GSU/New South Review, Litchfield Review, Southern California Anthology, Rattle, and Harvard Square Editions, among others.  

Poet Ilya Kaminsky selected her first chapbook, Dar a Luz, for publication by the pacificREVIEW. Her book Club Paradise placed second for the May Swenson award and received an Honorable Mention in the Jeffers Tor House prize.

Additional literary awards include the Faulkner Award, Poetry Guild Award, Brushfire Poet Award, first prize Chester H. Jones Foundation, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, the Organization of Black Screenwriters, SCIFF Family Focus and WINFEMME awards.  She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and is a graduate of LA Film School and Hunter College.