Jewelle Gomez is a writer and activist and the author of the double Lambda Award-winning novel, The Gilda Stories. Her publications include three collections of poetry: The Lipstick Papers and Flamingoes and Bears, both self-published, and most recently, Oral Tradition. She edited with Eric Garber a fantasy fiction anthology entitled Swords of the Rainbow and selected the fiction for Best Lesbian Erotica 1997. She is also the author a book of personal and political essays, entitled Forty-Three Septembers, and a collection of short fiction, Don't Explain. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts literature fellowship and two California Arts Council fellowships. Her adaptation of the book for the stage -- Bones & Ash: a Gilda Story -- was performed by the Urban Bush Women company in thirteen U.S. cities.