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Faculty Facts: John Casey

The University's English department is widely regarded as one of the best in the nation, in no small part thanks to distinguished faculty like Prof. John Casey. Casey is a 1989 National Book Award Winner for his novel Spartina. The creative writing professor and outdoor sports enthusiast graduated from Harvard College. He then went on to attend Harvard Law School and the prestigious Iowa's Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa, where renowned writers such as Robert Penn Warren and Raymond Carver once studied. Casey has written multiple novels and also translated two Italian novels while living in Rome.

A self-professed exercise addict, his latest work, Room for Improvement, is a collection of essays chronicling his own sports adventures - and misadventures - from canoeing the Delaware River to climbing Mount Katahdin. One notable vignette recounts a recent feat: completing a 70th birthday 70-kilometer marathon, proving the endurance junkie is as active as ever.

Casey now lives in Charlottesville with his wife and their four daughters.

-compiled by Caroline Gecker

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