Sara Marinelli is a writer, audioproducer, and educator based in San Francisco. She grew up in Italy, where she earned her PhD in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Rome, “La Sapienza.” After completing a fellowship at UC Santa Cruz in 2007, Sara moved to the Bay Area. Here, she completed an MFA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. Her publications in English appear on Blue Mesa Review, New American Writing, PUMMAROLƏ, Sparkle& Blink. In Italy, she has written for Nazione Indiana, Il Manifesto, Alias, Leggendaria.
Sara is a 2024-2025 Brown-Handler Writer in Residence at the SF Public Library. Recently, she has created and produced her first audio-documentary “Letters to Italy”, shortlisted for the Women’s International Podcast Awards 2022. She is senior editor and co-producer of the Wondery podcast This is Actually Happening, and a Teaching Artist at the San Francisco Opera. She teaches Comparative Literature and Culture at the University of San Francisco, where she has been awarded a Distinguished Teaching Award in 2023.
For the last three years, she produced and hosted an Italian music show, “Italian Frequency,” on KXSF 102.5, San Francisco Community Radio. In the past, she was story editor and associate producer at Open Eye Pictures, where she worked on her short film PASSAGE, and the documentary ALFREDO’S FIRE. From 2014 to 2019, she produced and hosted the Hazel Reading Series, an all-womxn reading series in San Francisco.