Many AJL members are familiar with author Leslea Newmans picture books such as Matzo Ball Moon, Runaway Dreidel, and A Sweet Passover and her middle grade novel, Fat Chance. Newmans newest book, October Mourning, will be released on Tuesday. I had the honor and privilege of receiving an advanced reading copy of this intense, inspiring, enlightening, and very moving collection of poems about the brutal killing of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. An explanation of the poetic forms used in the book - haiku, found poem, pantoum, concrete, rhymed couplet, list poem, alphabet poem, villanelle, acrostic - is appended and will be very valuable and useful to teachers and aspiring poets. While the book does not have explicit Jewish content, Lesleas own Jewish identity is evident in the poems and in her afterword, and the issues surrounding the book are certainly relevant for the Jewish community. Please see the press release below for more information. October Mourning belongs in every high school library and YA collection.
Gmar Chatimah Tova, Rachel Kamin, Director The Joseph and Mae Gray Cultural & Learning Center North Suburban Synagogue Beth El 1175 Sheridan Road Highland Park, IL 60035 847/432-8903 x242 or <blocked::mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] Office Hours: Monday 12:30-6:30pm, Tuesday-Friday 9:00am-1:30pm, Sunday 8:30-11:30am (when school is in session) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Cathy Renna, [email protected], 917-757-6123 Tracy Miracle, [email protected], 617-588-4404 SOMERVILLE, MA - August 27, 2012 - Candlewick Press today announced that author Lesléa Newmans October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard will be released nationwide on September 25, 2012. A novel in verse, October Mourning offers readers a masterful, poetic exploration of the impact of the October 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay twenty-one-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard was lured from a Wyoming bar by two young men, savagely beaten, tied to a remote fence, and left to die. It happened right before Gay Awareness Week. Lesléa Newman was already scheduled to visit the University of Wyoming as the keynote speaker. Shaken, the author addressed the large audience that gathered, reeling from the shock of Matthews brutal murder. October Mourning, a novel in verse, is her deeply felt response to the events of that tragic day. With poetic imagination, the author has created fictitious monologues from various points of view, including the fence Matthew was tied to, the stars that watched over him, the deer that kept him company, and Matthew himself. Nearly fourteen years later, this stunning cycle of sixty-eight poems illuminates this tragedy for readers too young to remember, and serves as a powerful, enduring tribute to Matthew Shepards life. Said Newman: That night in Laramie, I promised the people attending my lecture that I would do my best to make sure Matthew Shepard was not forgotten. Though I never met him, he became part of the fabric of my life; the poems that make up this book poured out of me as if they had been cooped up for years. My hope is that those who read October Mourning will be inspired to honor Matthew Shepards legacy by working to fill the world with peace, compassion, and love. Said Jason Marsden, Executive Director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation: From those of us who went through the media circus and national controversy surrounding Matts murder, to those of you who worried, who wondered, who imagined what it was like: this touching work is a unique, moving and somber gift to you. October Mourning is a vivid, poetic testimony to a time that must never be forgotten and a vital contribution to Matt's legacy and our promise to do whatever we can to replace hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance. About Leslea Newman Lesléa (pronounced "Lez-LEE-uh") Newman is the author of more than 60 books including A Letter to Harvey Milk, Still Life with Buddy, Hachiko Waits, Write from the Heart, The Boy Who Cried Fabulous, The Best Cat in the World, and Heather Has Two Mommies. She has received many literary awards, including Poetry Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Foundation, the Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award, the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, and three Pushcart Prize Nominations. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award finalists. Ms. Newman wrote Heather Has Two Mommies, the first children's book to portray lesbian families in a positive way, and has followed up this pioneering work with several more children's books on lesbian and gay families: Felicia's Favorite Story; Too Far Away to Touch; Saturday Is Pattyday; Mommy, Mama, and Me; Daddy, Papa, and Me; and Donovan's Big Day. She is also the author of many books for adults that deal with lesbian identity, Jewish identity and the intersection and collision between the two. Her award-winning short story, "A Letter to Harvey Milk" has been made into a film and adapted for the stage. A past poet laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts, Ms. Newman is currently a faculty member of Spalding University's brief-residency MFA in Writing Program.
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