Mary Santarelli

I write because storytelling feels as essential to me as breathing.
It is how I make sense of the world, and how I return to it.

I was drawn to stories long before I could read, instinctively aware that they were portals—doorways into other lives, other places, other ways of seeing. That sense of wonder still guides me. Writing, for me, is both catharsis and celebration. It collapses time, holds grief and humor in the same breath, and allows what is fragile to be named.

Much of my work centers on women’s interior lives, family in all its beautiful dysfunction, and characters who are flawed yet deeply lovable. I’m drawn to stories of belonging—of connection across generations, of faith quietly lived, of the magic hiding in ordinary moments. Dark humor finds its way in naturally, as does a tenderness for characters who carry more than they let on.
Place is never incidental in my writing. Kitchens, graveyards, playgrounds, passageways, pubs, coastlines, the Midwest, Ireland—these are living presences, shaping the emotional terrain of a story. Often, a place is where a story begins. Clifden’s Daughter emerged from a photograph of Ireland’s Connemara coast: a smoldering sunset, mountains holding a small city by the sea. I wondered what story lived there—and a character arrived, like a knock at the door.

My training includes an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University-Charlotte, with a focus on Screen & Stage. In this academic space, I deepened my focus on character-driven storytelling and the relationship between place, voice, and emotional truth.

I’ve continued to hone my work through ongoing development and workshops, including playwriting study with Chicago Dramatists, grounding my writing in collaboration and the lived experience of story on its feet.

Along the way, my work has received recognition from the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition, Page Turner International Screenplay Awards, Final Draft Big Break, PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, ScreenCraft, Scriptapalooza, the Vail Film Festival, Creative World Awards, the Chicago Scriptworks Contest, the Chicago Screenwriters’ Network, and the Wisconsin Screenwriters’ Forum.

Selected projects have advanced to finalist, semifinalist, and quarterfinalist rounds, received first-place and genre awards, and been featured in staged readings and productions, including The Eulogist at Bailiwick Theatre, Concentric at the King’s Theatre in Nova Scotia, and Clifden’s Daughter at iBAM! Chicago in 2024.