Author Lesléa Newman is coming to New York City to read from her new novel-in-verse, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard. Lesléa is also the author of the children's book Heather Has Two Mommies, which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in 1990. Her 2009 books, Mommy, Mama and Me and Daddy, Papa and Me, have also won numerous awards, including being named among the American Library Association's Stonewall Honor Books. October Mourning has won this award as well.
The book comes after years of trying to work through and understand the tragedy of Matthew Shepard's murder. Five days after he was beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead in Laramie, Wyoming, Lesléa arrived at the University of Wyoming, where Matthew had been a student, to give the keynote speech during the university's Gay Awareness Week.
Lesléa Newman will give a reading at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17, at Books of Wonder, located at 18 West 18th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, in New York City.