Meet Paul

I owe my career as a writer to Joni Mitchell.   

In the winter of 1974, I was in Grade 11. My marks were mediocre. I had a permanent sneer and did whatever I could to piss off my parents. But I had three things going for me: I loved to read and write — and I loved music. 

I followed rock and jazz critics closely. After I racked up my dad’s Ford LTD station wagon in a rear-ender collision while driving my band to our first gig, I sat in my room late that night and I thought I should do something to endear myself to the world. I had just bought Joni’s “Miles of Aisles” album. I listened to it a few times and then sat down and wrote a review. That was a Friday night.  I rewrote it over the weekend and submitted it to my school paper on Monday. A week later, the paper published that review. And so began my career.  (And I think my parents began to see I might turn out all right.) 

I earned a journalism degree from Toronto Metropolitan University and then built a career writing about everything from how mining explosives are made to why humans invented religion. I’ve written magazine features, news articles, annual report and brochure copy, essays (Globe and Mail, Broadview Magazine (formerly the United Church Observer), Muskrat Magazine, and Toronto Star), and speaking remarks for executives.  Since becoming a freelancer in 2018, I’ve been a consulting editor of the re-launch of Western University Alumni Magazine, I’ve written news and features for Western U, U of T News, U of T Med Magazine, Nexus Magazine at U of T Faculty of Law, Pursuit Magazine at U of T’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, the Medicine by Design regenerative medicine initiative at U of T and the York University Magazine, York University’s online research magazine, Brainstorm, Empowered Kids Ontario, and AGE-WELL.

I have a particular strength in writing creatively and effectively about complex research into all kinds of areas. 

Since 1980, I’ve been a writer and editor for a weekly newspaper, a major manufacturing corporation, communications agencies, fund raising consulting firms and, from 1998-2018, for the University of Toronto. As an editor, my publications won awards from the International Association of Business Communicators, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education. 

Please take a look at my work and if you like what you see, give me a shout. 

p.s. Thanks to the talented designers and developers at Hambly & Woolley in Toronto for their work on this site.