Gilda is immortal in a sea of mortals, and she tries to remain tied into their world rather than stand apart from it. It’s more focused on Gilda’s character and her life as the world changes around her. The Gilda Stories are the stories of the Girl’s (now Gilda’s) life from 1850 to 2050.The stories are not directly related, and the book does not have much of an overarching plot. Gilda gives the Girl immortality, and the Girl takes on her name in her memory. She escapes and is on the run when a slave catcher finds her and tries to rape her she kills him and is soon after found by Gilda, a woman who turns out to be a vampire. The Girl was born a slave in the American South. Trigger warning: sexual assault This collection of black lesbian vampire stories is more focused on the idea of immortality than vampire lore. The Gilda Stories was the recipient of two Lambda Literary Awards, and was adapted for. Jewelle Gomez is a writer, activist, and the author of many books including Forty-Three Septembers, Don't Explain, The Lipstick Papers, Flamingoes and Bears, and Oral Tradition. An instant lesbian classic when it was first published in 1991, The Gilda Stories has endured as an auspiciously prescient book in its explorations of blackness, radical ecology, re-definitions of family, and yes, the erotic potential of the vampire story.

After being initiated into eternal life as one who 'shares the blood' by two women there, Gilda spends the next two hundred years searching for a place to call home. This remarkable novel begins in 1850s Louisiana, where Gilda escapes slavery and learns about freedom while working in a brothel. This is a book to give to those you want most to find their own strength.'-Dorothy Allison 'Jewelle Gomez sees right into the heart. 'The Gilda Stories is groundbreaking not just for the wild lives it portrays, but for how it portrays them-communally, unapologetically, roaming fiercely over space and time.'-Emma Donoghue, author of Room

The gilda stories