Early life and education Cavallo was born in Philadelphia in 1931, the daughter of Genuino and Josephine (Petraca) Cavallo. She grew up in an Italian neighborhood of
South Philadelphia, where she attended public schools. Her grandparents, who lived with the family, spoke the
Abruzzese dialect; Cavallo learned Italian from them, and later based two characters in her first novel on them. As a teenager, she moved with her family to
Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania. She attended the
University of Pennsylvania and spent time in
Florence, Italy, as a
Fulbright scholar. She was a member of
Phi Beta Kappa society. Starting in 1980, she taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania.
Personal life Cavallo was married to the German-American artist Karl Hagedorn (1922–2005). She died in Springfield, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 2017. == References ==