January 15, 2019 -- The Community Outreach Committee at High School East hosted author and High School East alum Kathy Curto (class of 1986).  As part of the Raiders on the Rise program at East, Ms. Curto shared her path from a student at the school to becoming a published author.  In her recently published book, Not for Nothing: Tales of a Jersey Girlhood, she shares stories from her childhood and her experiences growing up in an Italian-American household.

Kathy Curto teaches at Montclair State University and The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has been published in the essay collection, Listen to Your Mother: What She Said Then, What We're Saying Now, and in The New York Times, Barrelhouse, La Voce di New York, Drift, Talking Writing, Junk, The Inquisitive Eater, The Asbury Park Press, VIA:Voices in Italian Americana, Ovunque Siamo and Lumina. She has been the recipient of the Kathryn Gurfein Writing Fellowship, the Montclair State University Engaged Teaching Fellowship and also serves on the faculty of the Joe Papaleo Writers' Workshop in Cetara, Italy.