Caroline Santinelli
Caroline Santinelli is a humor, essay, and fiction writer. She also volunteers as the growth editor for Appalachia Journal. Formerly, she worked in tech sales and prior to that taught high school English and outdoor education for six years.
Early on, she was also a media rights specialist & video editor at National Geographic Society and a digital news intern at NPR. In 2015, she joined Danish National Geographic photographers Helle and Uri Løvevild Golman on their expedition to Gabon to film and document their search for mandrills.
She grew up in Massachusetts, went to Middlebury College, and received an MA from the Bread Loaf School of English, where she was a James Maddox Presidential Fellow. She lives in San Francisco.
Essays01 - I’m Not Having a Baby, so I Climb a Really Tall Mountain - Appalachia Journal - 2026
02 - Changing Mimi’s Mind - Tiny Love Stories, NYTs - 2024
03 - The Old Bridle Path: "It Is Solved by Walking" - Appalachia Journal - 2017
04 - Timber Kings - Appalachia Journal - 2014
Humor01 - Rewriting the Classics for Daily Life in 2026 - The Belladonna - 2026
02 - I, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Would Like to Share My Weight-Loss Journey - The Belladonna - 2026
03 - To The Teacher Who Encouraged My Daughter’s Interest In The Oboe - Slackjaw - 2025
04 - I’m Sorry, Ma’am, Experts Know Nothing About Your Condition - The Belladonna - 2025
05 - Jane Eyre Discovers Ethical Non-Monogamy - The Belladonna - 2025 ✨ EDITOR TOP PICK 2025 ✨
Reporting01 - Can You Dig It? Arctic Explorers Find Buried Stash of 60 Year-Old Jam - National Geographic - 2015
Current Projects
Filler Content | a newsletter on life & lit
Reading Rhythms San Francisco | not a book club. a reading party.