Corso is a New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellow,[1] Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award Winner,[citation needed], and included on the Pennsylvania Center for the Book's Literary Map.

She is the author of eight books of fiction and poetry, including 'Vertical Bridges: Poems and Photographs of City Steps,' (2020) with original photos by the author and archival photographs from the University of Pittsburgh Library; Catina's Haircut: A Novel in Stories (2010) on Library Journal’s notable list of first novels;[2] Giovanna's 86 Circles And Other Stories (2005), a Binghamton University's John Gardner Fiction Book Award Finalist;[3] a book of poems, Death by Renaissance (2004), and award-winning poetry collections, The Laundress Catches Her Breath,[4] winner of the Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing; and Once I Was Told the Air Was Not for Breathing (2012),[5] about Pittsburgh steelworkers and garment workers in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and winner of a Triangle Fire Memorial Association Award.

She co-edited an anthology, Politics of Water: A Confluence of Women's Voices and wrote an introductory personal essay on the subject of industrial pollution.

Corso was born in the Alle-Kiski Valley of Allegheny County, in the Pittsburgh area and lived as a young adult in the city's East End neighborhood, Squirrel Hill.

She partnered with Northside Common Ministries, a Pittsburgh ecumenical organization and its members to co-write plays with Michael Winks about homelessness and hunger, based on interviews they conducted in shelters and food pantries.