Paula Brancato was one of the first women executives on Wall Street, a music producer in Hollywood and a strategic planner for The World Bank, all of which have contributed to her unique artistic voice. A poet and filmmaker, Brancato was the winner of the 2007 Brushfire Award (judged by Ilya Kaminsky) and received Honorable Mention in the 2008 Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize for Poetry. Her additional literary awards include the National Screenwriters, Organization of Black Screenwriters, WINFEMME, Chesterfield H. Jones Foundation, Poetry Guild of America, Faulkner, Asheville Writers Workshop, Pacific Northwest Writers, The Karlovy Vary Film Festival (Czech Republic), Houston Remi and Angelciti Film Festival awards. In 2008, Brancato's book Club Paradise was a May Swenson Poetry finalist and poet Ilya Kaminsky selected her first chapbook, Dar a Luz, for publication by the pacificREVIEW. She has also been published by GSU/New South Review, Georgetown Review, Mudfish, Litchfield Review, Southern California Review and Anthology, Rattle Magazine, Natchez Poetry Anthology, Pen & Brush Anthology, Alehouse Press, Disconnections, The Writers Place, Cycle Life Poetry, and Mary Anka and Lilly Presses. As President of Brancato Productions and The Writers Place, Brancato executive produced the feature film SOMEWHERE IN THE CITY, winner of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, starring Sandra Bernhard. Brancato has also written SUBTERFUGE, optioned for packaging by CAA; ELLEN JERSEY, Stein Productions; THE FAB FIVE, a parody of Harvard Business School commissioned by alums; LOVE YOU TO DEATH, sequel to CRIMES OF PASSION; and THE WANTING (16 screenwriting awards), optioned by Colossal Entertainment. Brancato's most recently directed film, HER FATHER'S DAUGHTER, won the Houston International Worldfest and Women of Color Film Festival and was a Sundance finalist. Brancato is currently on the faculty for screenwriting and poetry at the University of Southern California’s Master of Professional Writing program and at Southampton's Stonybrook College. Beginning in 2009, she will direct the Poetry and Writing Workshop at the Harvard Club of New York City. Brancato earned her M.B.A. at the Harvard Business School and is a graduate of Hunter College and Los Angeles Film School.

Paula Brancato