BAD Readers Book Qlub
Unearthing Immortality and Community with The Gilda Stories
There is something profoundly fitting about gathering at Edgar Allan Poe Cottage to talk about ghosts, ghouls, vampires, and the weight of history as the autumn air sets in. On October 6, 2026, the BAD Readers Book Qlub met to discuss Jewelle Gomez’s landmark speculative classic, The Gilda Stories.
We are a proudly Bronx-based book club designed for folks who know the struggle of actually finishing a book! We provide an empowering, low-pressure space for community members to build lasting literary habits while actively decolonizing our personal bookshelves through facilitated discussions, guided readings, and generative writing prompts.
Why The Gilda Stories?
Jewelle Gomez’s masterpiece is not your average vampire novel. Spanning over two centuries from the 1850s to a dystopian future, the novel follows Gilda—an escaped enslaved girl who is taken in by a community of women and eventually transformed into a vampire. But rather than relying on tropes of eternal damnation or bloodthirsty horror, Gomez reimagines the vampire mythos through a Black queer feminist lens.
The Gilda Stories explores:
The Politics of Belonging: What does it mean to build chosen family across generations, geography, and deep historical trauma?
Decolonizing the Archive: Tracing freedom, autonomy, and resistance against the backdrops of the American South, San Francisco, and beyond.
The Radical Nature of Rest: Gilda’s journey teaches us that survival isn't just about endurance—it’s about carving out spaces of care, memory, and dignity.
