Gabrielle Flam ’10

While growing up in Los Angeles, California, my parents encouraged my sisters and I to travel, experience other cultures, and learn other languages—in short, to become citizens of the world. Luckily, part of my mother’s “plan” was to send us to her friends' home in Provence every summer, where I became fascinated by France. Once I’d visited Paris as a teenager, I knew I’d live there one day.  

I began studying creative writing as a freshman at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and when I still didn’t like it after the fall term, decided to go to the Sorbonne, with the intention of staying a semester. Of course, I ended up falling in love with the city and transferred to AUP’s Comparative Literature department, where I completed my undergraduate degree.  

I’d been studying French my whole life and while living in Paris, did everything I could to improve my speaking, reading, and writing skills. I also took Spanish and Italian classes, which means that now, I can get by... which really means, my Spanish and Italian are atrocious.  

AUP cemented my desire to study literature and writing and helped spark my intellectual curiosity and creativity. Living in Paris, for any writer, is a dream come true, but combine that with extraordinary professors and a uniquely intimate literature department, and it’s easy to see why this was such a magical and moving time for me. Every single one of my professors inspired me to keep writing and reading, and I’m especially grateful to Professor Jeffrey Greene, who helped me hone my poetry writing skills, and encouraged me to apply to a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program. He remains a dear friend and mentor.

I met incredible people at AUP and am now blessed with a worldwide network of amazing connections. I just went to a wedding in Italy for one of my best friends, while another friend came from the East Coast of the US to visit me in LA. I always make an effort to see friends and former professors when I visit Paris and keep in touch with others through Facebook and email.   

There’s no question in my mind that studying at AUP enabled me to become who I am today. It opened my eyes and mind to all different kinds of people, whom I would never have met otherwise, made me more self-aware, more sure of myself, and less fearful of trying new things. My time here helped me to appreciate literature to the fullest and to use writing to express everything new I was feeling and experiencing. I learned how to think more differently than I could have anywhere else.  

After AUP, I spent a year in New York City, where I worked in publishing, before completing a Poetry MFA at Emerson College. While there, I contributed to the Boston Review and taught high school poetry. I then returned to LA, where I free-lanced for some publications, including The LA Review of Books and The Argonaut, and worked as a copywriter. This past year, I decided that corporate life wasn't for me and started teaching kindergarden at a French immersion school, before completing a second master’s in education at Antioch University Los Angeles. I’m still writing poetry and articles and this fall, I’ll be heading to Berlin to teach at the Berlin British School. I’ll be joined, as always, by my most trusted companion, advisor, and editor: my puppy. A new adventure awaits us both!