Patrick Lawler has published seven books of poetry: Breathe a World (2022); Child Sings in the Womb (2014); Trade World Center (2012); Under Ground (2011); Feeding the Fear of The Earth (2006); (reading a burning book) (1994); and A Drowning Man is Never Tall Enough (1990).  In 2026, Doubly Mad will publish Dance in the Dirthouse.

In addition, Lawler has two books of fiction published: Rescuers of Skydivers Search Among the Clouds (winner of the 2013 Fiction Collective Two Ronald Sukenick/American Book Review Innovative Fiction Award) and The Meaning of If (a collection of short stories from Four Way Books, 2014). In 2025, the University of Alabama Press (FC2) is scheduled to publish Lawler’s novel Conversations with Extinct Animals.

He is a Professor Emeritus at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and he is a Writer in Residence at LeMoyne College.  Among his awards are two New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, a Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Grant, the CNY Book Award for Fiction, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

Also, Lawler writes film scripts with Director Ted Schaefer.  They have produced three short films (“Singing to the Earth Until a Tree Grows,” “The Zeno Question,” and “I Fell in Love with the World”) and the feature-length film Giving Birth to a Butterfly, which has been presented at several film festivals, including Montreal Film Festival, Cucalorus Film Festival, Chattanooga Film Festival, Big Apple Film Festival, and the Not Film Festival in Italy. In May 2025, their script, “The Arrow at Rest in Every Instant of Its Flight,” will be filmed in NYC.