A native of Italy, P.M. Forni is a Professor of Italian Literature at Johns Hopkins University, where he heads the Civility Initiative and where he has been recognized with awards for outstanding teaching. He is a graduate of the University of Pavia and received his Ph.D at UCLA.

He has published widely on Italian literary icon Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). In 1997 he co-founded the Johns Hopkins Civility Project, an aggregate of academic and community outreach activities aimed at assessing the importance of manners, civility and politeness in contemporary societies. In 2000 he founded the Civility Initiative at Johns Hopkins. Professor Forni was a Fellow at Villa I Tatti, the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence. Also in Florence, he directed the academic program of the Charles S. Singleton Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa Spelman.

His book Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct has sold more than 100,000 copies. It has been called a "simple, practical, perfectly measured, and quietly magical handbook on the lost art of civility and compassion", and was featured on Oprah. His most recent book is The Civility Solution: What To Do When People Are Rude. Recommended as a "fabulous book" by Peggy Post, director of the Emily Post Institute, it is a thoughtful and practical discussion of the importance of civility in today's hectic world. Reports on his work have appeared in, among others, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, the Corriere della Sera, and O Magazine.