Bella Kostolni

About

Isabella Kostolni is a writer and award-winning journalist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Capitalizing on her four-year Yelp Elite status and long-time passion for dining, food history, and recipe development, Isabella writes food features for Static Media’s Chowhound. Formerly of The Waukesha Freeman, Isabella has also extensively covered local, regional, and national politics, business, education, and government. Isabella earned an MFA in creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University in 2025 and a BA in interdisciplinary studies with emphasis in journalism, English, and Spanish from the University of Missouri in 2022. Beyond her writing career, Isabella works as an administrative assistant in the Helen Bader Office of Applied Gerontology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In her free time, Isabella continues revising her debut novel, a contemporary fiction cold case mystery set in Wisconsin’s rugged and beautiful Driftless Region, which she penned for her master’s thesis.