{"product_id":"the-gilda-stories-9780872866744","title":"The Gilda Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Gilda Stories\u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003eRoom\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Jewelle Gomez sees right into the heart. This is a book to give to those you want most to find their own strength.\"--Dorothy Allison\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis remarkable novel begins in 1850s Louisiana, where Gilda escapes slavery and learns about freedom while working in a brothel. 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. An instant lesbian classic when it was first published in 1991, \u003ci\u003eThe Gilda Stories \u003c\/i\u003ehas 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJewelle Gomez \u003c\/b\u003eis a writer, activist, and the author of many books including \u003ci\u003eForty-Three Septembers\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDon't Explain\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Lipstick Papers\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFlamingoes and Bears\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eOral Tradition\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eThe Gilda Stories \u003c\/i\u003ewas the recipient of two Lambda Literary Awards, and was adapted for the stage by the Urban Bush Women theater company in thirteen United States cities. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlexis Pauline Gumbs \u003c\/b\u003ewas named one of \u003ci\u003eUTNE Reader\u003c\/i\u003e's 50 Visionaries Transforming the World, a Reproductive Reality Check Shero, a Black Woman Rising nominee, and was awarded one of the first-ever \"Too Sexy for 501c3\" trophies. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore praise for \u003ci\u003eThe Gilda Stories: \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Jewelle's big-hearted novel pulls old rhythms out of the earth, the beauty shops and living rooms of black lesbian herstory, expressed by the dazzling vampire Gilda. Her resilience is a testament to black queer women's love, power, and creativity. Brilliant \"--Joan Steinau Lester, author of \u003ci\u003eBlack, White, Other\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In sensuous prose, Jewelle Gomez uses the vampire story as a vehicle for a re-telling of American history in which the disenfranchised finally get their say. Her take on queerness, community, and the vampire legend is as radical and relevant as ever.\"--Michael Nava, author of \u003ci\u003eThe City of Palaces\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"I devoured the 25th anniversary edition of Jewelle Gomez's \u003ci\u003eThe Gilda Stories\u003c\/i\u003e with the same venal hunger as I did when I first read it. I still feel a connection to Gilda: her tenacity, her desire for community, her insistence on living among humanity with all its flaws and danger. The Gilda Stories are both classic and timely. Gilda emphasizes the import of tenets at the crux of black feminism while her stories ring with the urgency of problems that desperately need to be resolved in our current moment.\"--Theri A. Pickens, author of \u003ci\u003eNew Body Politics\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This revolutionary classic by a pioneer in black speculative fiction will delight and inspire generations to come.\"--Tananarive Due, author of \u003ci\u003eGhost Summer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Gilda Stories\u003c\/i\u003e was ahead of its time when it was first published in 1991, and this anniversary edition reminds us why it's still an important novel. Gomez's characters are rooted in historical reality yet lift seductively out of it, to trouble traditional models of family, identity, and literary genre and imagine for us bold new patterns. A lush, exciting, inspiring read.\"--Sarah Waters, author of \u003ci\u003eTipping the Velvet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\" . . . its focus on a black lesbian who possesses considerable agency througout the centuries, and its commentary on gender and race, remain significant and powerful.\"--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e City Lights Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/29\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780872866744\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/15\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/15\/2016\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Jewelle Gomez","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36645485478044,"sku":"9780872866744","price":14.41,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_c789352f-bdf7-461f-b173-b58d6bdd637a.jpg?v=1603861228","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-gilda-stories-9780872866744","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}