Pat McCaw 

Pat McCaw travelled a winding path into the writing world. Her childhood love of storytelling became overpowered by science, and she earned her MD at the University of Iowa. After practicing family medicine for fifteen years, she picked up a pen and wrote a middle-grade fantasy novel in two weeks. It changed her life.

 With two kids and a busy medical practice, she went back to school and earned her MFA in Creative Writing for Children from Hamline University. Her future was forever changed. Beaten down by the pandemic, she journeyed into fantastic worlds with her characters. In a massive life change, she left her family practice after 20 years to focus on her writing.

 Through Mighty Media Press, she published children’s books for Mayo Clinic Press. She combined her medical and writing worlds to create a six-book series Helping Paws Academy. In each book, therapy dogs teach hospitalized children about diabetes, seizures, broken bones, stitches, leukemia, and appendicitis. A second four-book series, Edge of Medicine, is expected in 2025 and explores medical breakthroughs.

Pat writes middle grade and young adult fiction, non-fiction and fiction picture books, and adult fiction. She lives in rural Iowa with her husband and two daughters. She teaches future doctors at a medical residency program and works urgent care part-time. She keeps her foot in the medical world to support her travel habit! Her family is working their way through the National Parks and enjoying each hike along the way. She loves to fish, camp, hunt mushrooms, and explore tiny trails through the trees. She seems to think she could participate in the survival series, Alone, and live in the isolated wilderness. She might last a few days!