Students of Professor of English Mary Cappello know her as a gifted and inspiring teacher. Colleagues and readers of her work know her as a brilliant writer of literary nonfiction.
Others know Cappello as a leading scholar with an impressive list of achievements, publications, and awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship to teach at the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow. Most recently she was named a Guggenheim Fellow for 2011–2012.
Cappello is the author of four books of literary nonfiction, including Night Bloom, Called Back: My Reply to Cancer, My Return to Life (which won a Foreword Book of the Year Award, and Independent Publishers Prize), and Awkward: A Detour (a Los Angeles Times Bestseller). Her most recent book is Swallow: Foreign Bodies, Their Ingestion, Inspiration and the Curious Doctor Who Extracted Them, which was inspired by an exhibit in Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum.
These are just some of Cappello’s accomplishments. What links them together is a standard of excellence, and the intellect, passion, curiosity, and distinctive voice that defines her work.
Mary Cappello will be a featured presenter in the 2012 URI Ocean State Summer Writing Conference, held on the Kingston Campus, June 21–23.