Work samples

  • Learning Jiu-Jitsu Forced Me to Reckon With My Abusive Past — and Helped Me Heal

    This essay was published by PS (formerly Popsugar) on Sept. 23, 2024.

  • Little Feet

    This piece was published in Cleaver Magazine and also appeared in the Best Small Fictions 2022 anthology.

    I wrote "Little Feet" when I was processing my mother's death. I found that no matter what prompt I gave myself, I couldn't seem to write about her death after a decade-long battle with cancer. I wanted to be truthful, I thought, and give the mystical details of her death exactly like they happened. But as I was reminded, sometimes the truest expression of our experiences is fictional.

  • The Performers excerpt

    The Performers is a coming-of-age novel about sacrifice, the indelible ties of family and friendship, and the life-changing power of music. I am currently querying it for agent representation.

    In the cutthroat world of classical music, only the most committed and talented can achieve the technical prowess and musicality to grace the world’s most famous stages. In The Peerformers, Julietta Costa (Juli) believes she has what it takes. She studies opera scores she checks out from the library and practices vocal exercises in her bathroom. She attends an all-girls high school in early 2000s St. Louis with a renowned vocal group. Her best friend, Chrissy, encourages and supports her. Plus, classical music is in her blood. Her father is a celebrated trumpeter and her mother, who died when Juli was 9, was a pianist.

Share:

Facebook Twitter Share

About Gabriella

2024 OTW Artist   Baltimore City  

I am a Portuguese-American writer whose work has appeared in the Best Small Fictions 2022 anthology, North American Review, USA Today, PS (formerly Popsugar), The Rumpus, Cleaver, and Litro, among others. I have received fellowships and scholarships from Disquiet International, The Community of Writers, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and won the 2020 San Miguel Writers’ Conference Writing Contest.

I began my writing career as a journalist and won local and national… more

View Gabriella's Resume
Jump to a project:

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. 

    •

    • Essays

    I have a unique relationship with non-fiction since I worked as a journalist for a decade. In the creative non-fiction realm,  they are snatches of thoughts and descriptions that I weave together to answer questions about a moment in time. 

    Essays in this collection have appeared in PS (formerly 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"
    •

    • 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.