Education
Born in Hartford, Connecticut of Italian heritage, she is a graduate of Middlebury College (Bachelor, 1997), University of Washington (Master of Arts, 2000), and University of California, Los Angeles (Doctor of Philosophy, 2014).
Born in Hartford, Connecticut of Italian heritage, she is a graduate of Middlebury College (Bachelor, 1997), University of Washington (Master of Arts, 2000), and University of California, Los Angeles (Doctor of Philosophy, 2014).
Cassarino has taught in the English departments at Middlebury College in Vermont, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and University of California, Los Los Angeles She has also worked as a private chef, and cooked at Babbo in New York City. She is a Copy Editor at ELLE.com. Her poetry, which deals with subjects such as place, desire, and loss, has been published in notable literary journals such as The New Republic, Verse Daily, Gulf Coast, Crazyhorse, Iowa Review, Georgia Review, AGNI and the Comstock Review (where she was awarded the 2003 winning poem).
Her poem "Summer Solstice" was featured on Garrison Keillor"s The Writers’ Almanac on National Public Radio in 2011.
She also received a major award from the Astraea Foundation Writer"s Fund. Her collection of poetry, Zero at the Bone, was published by New Issues Press in 2009 to critical acclaim.
Her work has been widely commented on, by poets such as the British writer Glyn Maxwell who reviewed the collection stating: "Cassarino"s voice ranges far and near, from the gasp and sigh of creaturely love to the dizzying spaces of American distance, whiteness, silence. Few poets these days can draw their lines so strongly.."
She lives in Los Angeles and teaches at University of California, Los Los Angeles
