Cara Cilento grew up in a small suburban North Jersey town. Her family of origin did not. Cara’s grandparents were a combination of Italian immigrants and first generation Italian-Americans. They were a close-knit family that lived in Newark, NJ and who pushed academic and personal success. Most of all they pushed assimilation.

   Cara Cilento is a divorced mother of two boys and three dogs. She has been a speech therapist for over twenty years in various public schools. Currently, she lives in suburban North Jersey. Snapshots: Say Cheese! is her first published book which has taken a lifetime of experiences—traumatic, joyful, abusive, healing and reaffirming—as her muse.