Jewelle Gomez Libri

Saints and Sinners is an annual celebration that takes place in the heart of the French Quarter of New Orleans each spring. The Festival includes writing workshops, readings, panel discussions, literary walking tours, and a variety of special events. We also aim to inspire the written word through our short fiction contest, and our annual Saints and Sinners Emerging Writer Award sponsored by Rob Byrnes. Each year we induct individuals to our Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is intended to recognize people for their dedication to LGBTQ literature. Selected members have shown their passion for our literary community through various avenues including writing, promotion, publishing, editing, teaching, bookselling, and volunteerism.This collection includes a varied selection of poetry from the 2021 and 2022 festivals including the winners and finalists for the festival's annual poetry contest.

'A groundbreaking work of Afrofuturism before the term was even coined' Guardian 'A lush, exciting, inspiring read' Sarah Waters In this radically reimagined vampire myth, the night hides many things... Louisiana, 1850. A young girl escapes slavery and is taken in by two mysterious women. Rumoured to be witches, the pair travel only at night, dress in men's clothing and seem to know others' innermost thoughts. But the girl sees the promise of true freedom in their dark glittering eyes: the promise to 'share the blood' and live forever. They name her Gilda. Over the next two hundred years, Gilda moves through unseen spaces: through antebellum brothels, gold-rush bars, Black women's suffrage groups, hair salons and jazz clubs, searching for a way to exist in the world. Her body, powerful against the passage of time, will know both beauty and horror through the women she desires and the blood she craves. But can Gilda truly outrun the darkness of history and face a future where the lives of everyone she loves are at stake?

African American, Cabo Verdean/Wampanoag/Ioway all converge in Jewelle Gomez's exquisite collection of poetry that explores the legacies of family heritage, history, and identity. Gomez contemplates her sexuality, multi-ethnic and class identities, and what it means to experience love, loss, grief, friendship, and solidarity with other women during times of political upheaval. Gomez's poems are a gift: at times sumptuous and impassioned, and always striking in their clarity.