Published in 1991, the The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez starts in 1850 where we open on an unnamed enslaved girl as she kills a bounty hunter trying to capture her. We meet the first Gilda, who takes the girl in and raises her along with her partner Bird. Both Gilda and Bird are vampires with certain rules they’ve constructed to live by, including to not kill humans and aim for some sort of exchange when drawing blood from them. Gilda wearies of the world’s cyclical violence and chooses to take the true death, but not before turning the girl into a vampire. The girl, now grown up, takes on the name Gilda. What follows is a series of vignettes from Gilda’s life as she travels and lives across the United States, with the last chapter set in 2050. Gomez said of Gilda in the foreword of the 2016 edition: “Each new decade brings up reminders that the culture has not yet healed the wounds left from slavery and bigotry. Gilda must learn to leave those she loves behind without bending under the further weight of loneliness. Throughout her journey she tries to hold on to her humanity and help others to find theirs.”

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