Gabriella is a graduate who studied BA English & Creative Writing and Journalism, Media & Communication. We caught up with Gabriella to find out more about her career in journalism and writing since graduating...

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what originally brought you to Strathclyde...

I’m an author and journalist, although my career spans all different kinds of work. I host literary events, appear as a guest expert on TV and radio, write columns, features and travel pieces and do foreign reporting, but the job that takes up most of my time is writing books. At age nineteen I was desperate to move to Glasgow and live in a tenement, which we didn’t have where I grew up in Fife. I was already in love with Glasgow’s music scene, going to gigs at Barfly and listening to my Belle and Sebastian records, but now I could do all that and come home to my little flat at Strathclyde’s student halls.

You studied Journalism and Creative Writing at Undergraduate level. How did the course set you up for a career in Journalism?

It gave me contacts in the industry and a great reading list. And it showed me there were different ways of reaching my goals. By the end of my studies I was much more disciplined, and I was hungry to be employed, which helped in getting into newsrooms – and staying there. Journalism is such a vocational role, I see it as a trade that can only really be learned on the job, but at Strathclyde I learned how to structure my time and dig deep when I needed to. In my last year I worked in a pub with a second job in a clothes shop, spent the rest of the time in the library and in class, got my first class honours degree and it lit a fire under me. I went to an average school in an average town and it was always me making my own luck. When you don’t come from money or privilege you have to be the person in the room who wants it most.

Is there anything you learned on the course that you still utilise to this day?

Always try to do interviews in person - you’re never fully in control on the phone or email. And don’t worry if it doesn’t go the way you expect. It can all become part of the article.

You are about to release your second book, How to Build a City. Tell us a little bit about the book and what influenced your writing?

How to Build a City is a narrative non-fiction exploration of cities and the crises they face – war, climate catastrophe and social predicaments like loneliness, hostility towards migrants and ageing populations. I travelled to 12 cities around the world and looked at how they were adapting through design and architecture, and the community action that followed. It’s a book about people, and it’s a book about resilience, but it’s also about the urge to find home, and if home is lost, to make it again. On the page is where I can marry the two sides of my brain – the creative and the practical, through long-form reporting and something more poetic and abstract. Journalism, of course, influences my writing, but what I love about books is that there are no rules. Newspapers want things done rather rigidly but when I write books I work in whatever way the subject demands. I just try to feel my way through.

In what ways did studying journalism prepare you for writing as an author?

I approach my books with curiosity, and I’m always open to having my mind changed. I want to move through the world filling myself with knowledge and that started when I studied at Strathclyde. I see mine as the best job in the world – travelling, meeting interesting people, thinking deeply, trying to connect the dots – but it’s also unpredictable with long fallow periods. There isn’t always a straight-forward career trajectory as an author – after 15 years in the business you can still have a rough, low-paid year. I’ve tried to spread my work out over different mediums to futureproof myself and it’s similar doing your undergraduate – you learn so many different ideas. I remember feeling so much pressure – how do I choose what I want to specialise in? Now I know you don’t have to choose. Careers are long and there’s time for everything.

What has been your career highlight?

When I got this book deal. I had just got out of seeing a film when I opened the messages from my agent saying an offer had been made. I read the letter from my now-publisher and had an out of body experience – it was like I was looking down at myself from above. I was so full of adrenaline I didn’t sleep properly for about a week. The book deal has given me so many kinds of freedom. The 18 months I spent researching and writing were the most stimulating and creatively satisfying of my life. 

What advice would you give to prospective students interested in a career in Journalism?

Don’t treat a job as a terminus – it can lead you to so many other beautiful places. Wait at least one hour after receiving feedback to respond. Force yourself to get comfortable speaking on the phone. You learn how to be a good writer by reading other writers. Notice how they structure, how they use the senses, how they take you by surprise. Write something every day and commit totally – let it be the thing you love most in the world. Also, your phone doesn’t have the answer to everything. I have to remind myself of that a thousand times a day.