Caroline Tiger

My articles have appeared in many publications including Travel & Leisure, Departures, the New York Times’ T Design Magazine, Metropolis, Self, Good Housekeeping, Women’s Health, Marie Claire, Town & Country, Salon, Ms., Philadelphia, and the Washington Post. I’m a columnist for the Home & Design section of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and I’m a former adjunct professor of magazine writing at Temple University. I’m a general-interest writer with a particular affinity for writing about design, travel, art, and business — but my absolute favorite topic is flea markets. Before I freelanced, I was Managing Editor of Philadelphia magazine. See my résumé for more about my education and work history.

I grew up in northern New Jersey, a few towns over from George Washington’s Morristown Headquarters. I stayed in Philadelphia after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996, and I now live with my husband and cat in Center City, in Queen Village, the oldest neighborhood in Philadelphia. Being surrounded by Revolutionary battle sites all my life, it was only natural that I’d write General Howe’s Dog: George Washington, The Battle of Germantown and the Dog Who Crossed Enemy Lines (Penguin/Chamberlain Bros.; June 2005).

My other books also grew out of personal experience. The Long Distance Relationship Guide: Advice for the Geographically Challenged (Quirk; February 2005)—well, that one’s pretty obvious. And my earlier advice tome, How To Behave: A Guide To Modern Manners for the Socially Challenged (Quirk; June 2003) came about while I was on staff at Philadelphia magazine, but this was coincidental—my former coworkers were for the most part well-behaved. How To Behave has sold more than 40,000 copies and has been translated into Finnish, Japanese, Complex Chinese, Thai, Russian and Spanish; and its sequel, How To Behave: Dating & Sex, came out from Quirk in February 2007. We re-released The Long-Distance Relationship Guide with a new cover and new material in August 2007–check out the Books page to see the new cover inspired by the Italian version of the book. The LDRG has also been translated into Japanese, Complex Chinese, Italian, Russian, and German. My latest book is The Newlywed’s Instruction Manual, out in April 2010.

I’ve appeared as both a modern-manners expert and a long-distance relationship expert on TV and radio. I’ve also been quoted in Real Simple, MSN.com, New York magazine, Town & Country, Time Out New York, Fit Pregnancy, and in many other magazines–and too many daily newspapers to list here. For more about my media appearances, see the press section.

As far as other types of writing, I collaborated with Design Army, a boutique design firm in D.C., to produce the 72-page souvenir program for the 135th Edition of Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey, which premiered in March 2005. It wasn’t my first time writing for kids–I’ve written two books for preteens: The Wizard’s Handbook and the UFO Hunter’s Handbook, both from Price Stern Sloan; and my two biographies for young adults came out in May 2007. They chronicle the lives of comedian Margaret Cho and sculptor/designer Isamu Noguchi. I’ve also written a few Town & Country books, including two on wedding words and one on thank-you notes.

I also write a great deal about my hometown of Philadelphia, in magazines and in books. City Walks: Philadelphia,a deck of 52 themed walks around the city, came out from Chronicle Books in March 2009. I’ve had the gut-busting job of updating the “Where To Eat” chapter for the 15th and 16th editions of Fodor’s Philadelphia (the 16th comes out in January 2010), and I also rehauled the “Shopping” chapter for this latest, 16th edition. For Fodor’s Compass Guide to Pennyslvania, I updated the chapters on Culture & History, Philadelphia, Southeast PA, and Northeast and the Poconos. It sure is lovely up there.

I have lots of projects in the works. One is a nonprofit I helped found and for which I serve on the Board: Spells Writing Center provides free writing workshops to school-age kids in Philadelphia. Another ongoing one is design-phan, my blog about design in and around Philly. Check it out, and let me know what you think!