Paul Casella, MFA

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Paul Casella is a writer, teacher, editor and producer. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Since 1988 Paul has worked with health professionals to improve the clarity and effectiveness of their manuscripts for publication, formal presentations, grant applications, slides, posters, videos, and other media for scientific purposes.


In 1988 to 1992 Paul founded, directed, and produced PTV: Poetry Television, a video magazine of poetry distributed to 15 educational centers in the US. The programs featured over 300 poets, fiction writers, musicians and artists. It was funded by a $5,000 grant from Film in the Cities, St Paul, MN. In 1992–2993 Paul MC’d and recorded videos of Talk/Art/Cabaret, and open reading and music series at the Mill Restaurant, Iowa City, IA, which were then aired on public access television.


Since 1993 Paul has presented over 3,000 seminars on written and spoken communication skills to physicians, pharmacists, scientists, nurses, administrators and other scientific and health care professionals at medical centers and meetings across North America and Europe. At international meetings Paul coaches speakers on their delivery skills before they present to the society.  A founding member of the Health Care Communications Group, Paul has authored two chapters of their award-winning book Writing, Speaking, and Communication Skills for Health Professionals (Yale University Press 2001).


In addition to his work giving presentations, Paul is an adjunct assistant professor and a consultant to the faculty at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, where he leads seminars, edits manuscripts, coaches speakers, and identifies and serves the advanced communication needs of the faculty. Recently Paul has reinvigorated his poetry video work, which is featured at the start of this website.