Work samples

  • One Comforting Turn Begets Another

    This essay appeared in Memoir Land on Dec. 4, 2025.

  • Dancing in the Street

    This essay appeared in Jenny Magazine on June 18, 2025.

  • Rise Bmore Marks the 10th Anniversary of Freddie Gray's Death

    This article appeared in BmoreArt on April 30, 2025

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About Gabriella

Baltimore City  

I am a writer of fantastical realism exploring the emotional depths of the human experience, an award-winning journalist, and a dance activist. My work blends the surreal with the intimate to examine how people survive, transform, and find meaning in uncertain worlds, and has appeared in USA Today, Popsugar, North American Review, Litro, Cleaver, Memoir Land, and the Best Small Fictions 2022 anthology, among others.

I am a 2025 Ruby Artist Grants recipient and a regular contributor… more

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Essays

I worked as a journalist for a decade and frequently write essays for literary and news outlets related to activism and my relationship with grief. 

Essays in this collection have appeared in Popsugar, North American Review, Litro, and Emerge Literary Journal. 

  • Cat Love

    This essay appeared in Emerge Literary Journal's Issue 21 in 2022.
  • Coronavirus Lament

    This essay appeared in Litro magazine on May 12, 2020.
  • Connection.pdf

    "Connection" traces my encounter with a fellow passenger of a tumultuous flight from Mexico City back to the United States. I was so struck that I wrote the first draft of this piece on the plane. 

    "Connection" appeared in the Summer 2021 issue of North American Review. It also appeared in the Elements of Creative Writing textbook, published by the University of Northern Iowa. 
  • North American Review—Connection
    North American Review—"Connection"
  • Emerge—Cat Love
    Emerge—"Cat Love"
  • Litro—Coronavirus Lament
    Litro—"Coronavirus Lament"
  • Learning Jiu-Jitsu Forced Me to Reckon With My Abusive Past — and Helped Me Heal

    This essay appeared in Popsugar in September 2024. 
  • Learning Jiu-Jitsu Forced Me to Reckon With My Abusive Past — and Helped Me Heal in Popsugar
    Learning Jiu-Jitsu Forced Me to Reckon With My Abusive Past — and Helped Me Heal in Popsugar
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  • North American Review—Connection
  • Emerge—Cat Love
  • Litro—Coronavirus Lament
  • Learning Jiu-Jitsu Forced Me to Reckon With My Abusive Past — and Helped Me Heal in Popsugar

    • Author Interviews

    For the past few years, I have contributed author interviews to The Rumpus literary magazine. These conversations have allowed me to build community in the literary world and aso inspire my creative work. 

    • Interview with Lyndsay Rush
      Interview with Lyndsay Rush
    • Interview with Evette Dionne
      Interview with Evette Dionne
    • The Rumpus interview with Lyndsay Rush .pdf

      During an exuberant phone conversation, Lyndsay Rush and I talked about Doritos, what she’s most nervous about revealing in her collection, and why she dedicated the book to Michelle Pfeifer. This interview has been edited for clarity.
    • Interview with Edgar Kunz
      Interview with Edgar Kunz
    • Interview with Ananda Lima
      Interview with Ananda Lima
    • The Rumpus Interview with Ananda Lima_0.pdf

      During our conversation, which appeared in The Rumpus in April 2022, Ananda Lima and I discussed her poetry collection Mother/land, the magic that occurs when trusting the writing process, why Lima finds it difficult to write nonfiction, and what knowledge motherhood has brought her.
    • The Rumpus Interview with Evette Dionne.pdf

      During our conversation, which appeared in The Rumpus in December 2022, Evette Dionne and I discussed her memoir in essays Weightless, the importance of context in history and writing, problematic TV shows that manage to captivate our interest, and what to do with the difficult emotions that arise when writing memoir.
    • The Rumpus Interview with Edgar Kunz.pdf

      During our conversation, which appeared in The Rumpus in August 2023, Edgar Kunz and I discussed his poetry collection Fixer, the beauty of couplets, the brilliance of Natasha Trethewey, and why his whole collection builds to a poem about an ugly bird in Oakland.
    • The Pink Wooly Mammoth in the Corner: A Conversation with Rachel Eliza Griffiths
      The Pink Wooly Mammoth in the Corner: A Conversation with Rachel Eliza Griffiths
    • The Pink Wooly Mammoth in the Corner: A Conversation with Rachel Eliza Griffiths

      This interview appeared on The Rumpus on Jan. 29, 2026
  • Interview with Lyndsay Rush
  • Interview with Evette Dionne
  • Interview with Edgar Kunz
  • Interview with Ananda Lima
  • The Pink Wooly Mammoth in the Corner: A Conversation with Rachel Eliza Griffiths

    • Fast Girls and Other Stories

    This collection of stories is focused on young, female protagonists who long for connection and are trying desperately to define who they are. These stories draw from my own experiences and were my first explorations of the line between fact and fiction that has defined my work. 

    Stories in this collection have appeared in publications such as New South Journal, Cleaver Magazine, and the Potomac Review, as well as the Best Small Fictions Anthology 2022, and won the San Miguel Writers’ Conference Writing Contest.

    • To You I Come, Before You I Stand

      This story came in second in New South Journal's Short Prose Contest and appeared in the journal's Spring 2021 edition. 
    • A Conversation about "To You I Come, Before You I Stand"

      As a Visiting Artist with the Johns Hopkins Advanced Academic Programs MA Program in Creative Writing, I participated in this conversation with fellow author Kathy Flann in 2022.

    • Free Bus Confessional 2:16.pdf

      This short story won the 2020 San Miguel Writers' Conference Writing Contest. 
    • Reading of "Free Bus Confessional"

      This reading took place at Antioch University Los Angeles in June 2019.

    • Fast Girls

      This short story appeared in Potamac Review's Summer 2022 issue. 
    • Little Feet, Cleaver Magazine
      Little Feet, Cleaver Magazine
    • New South—To You I Come, Before You I Stand
      New South—"To You I Come, Before You I Stand"
    • Potomac Review—Fast Girls
      Potomac Review—"Fast Girls"
    • Reading of "Little Feet"

      This reading took place at the Baker Artist Awards Off the Wall Literary Fair at The Peale Museum. 

    • Little Feet

      This story was published in Cleaver Magazine in January 2022 and published in the Best Small Fictions 2022 anthology. 
  • Little Feet, Cleaver Magazine
  • New South—To You I Come, Before You I Stand
  • Potomac Review—Fast Girls