Lesléa Newman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lesléa Newman
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Newman at the 2017 Texas Book Festival
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| Born | November 5, 1955 |
| Education | University of Vermont Naropa Institute |
| Occupation | Author |
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Notable work
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Heather Has Two Mommies |
| Awards | Alice Award (2009) Parents' Choice Award (2015) National Jewish Book Award (2019) |
Lesléa Newman (born November 5, 1955, in Brooklyn, New York City) is an American author and editor. She is well known for her children's book Heather Has Two Mommies. This book features a family with two mothers. Four of her young adult novels have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award. This award celebrates books about LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and others) themes. This makes her a very recognized author in this area.
Contents
About Lesléa Newman
Newman was born as Leslie Newman in New York City in 1955. Her parents were Jewish. She created her pen name, Lesléa, by combining her birth name, Leslie, with her Hebrew name, Leah. She started writing poems when she was only 8 years old. This helped her deal with her feelings when her family moved from Brooklyn to Long Island.
Early Writing and Education
As a teenager, Newman began writing more seriously. She took part in poetry contests from Seventeen magazine. In high school, her classmates voted her "Class Wit."
In 1977, Newman lived for a while on Kibbutz Ga'aton in Israel. A kibbutz is a special community, often focused on farming. She studied Hebrew, worked on a farm, and helped at the children's house. She later visited Israel again as part of a program for children's authors.
Newman studied education at the University of Vermont. She also studied poetry at Naropa Institute. A famous poet named Allen Ginsberg was her mentor in her poetry program. She says that Ginsberg and poet Grace Paley greatly influenced her. While she writes poetry, stories, and non-fiction, she says poetry is her first love.
Family Life and Influences
Newman's relationship with her parents was difficult when she was younger. They expected her to have a traditional marriage. For many years, she did not have much contact with them. They became close again after her mother became very ill. Newman stayed with her mother until she recovered. After that, they talked daily and visited often.
Newman cared for her mother in the months before she passed away. Her mother died from cancer and a lung disease. Newman later published a poetry collection about her mother called I Carry My Mother.
Her father passed away five years later. Newman believes his sadness after her mother's death contributed to his passing. She also dedicated a poetry collection to him, titled I Wish My Father.
Newman's work is shaped by her Jewish values. She is especially inspired by tikkun olam. This Hebrew phrase means "repairing the world." This value is why she writes about groups often missing from children's books. She wants children from Jewish and LGBTQ+ families to feel like they belong. Newman's commitment to social justice connects her Jewish and lesbian identities. She became Bat Mitzvah (a Jewish coming-of-age ceremony) at age 48.
Newman lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts with her wife and their cat. She was the poet laureate (an official poet) of Northampton from 2008 to 2010. Newman came out as a lesbian in the early 1980s. She married her wife, Mary Vazquez, in 1989. This was before gay marriage was legally recognized in the United States.
Lesléa Newman's Career
Lesléa Newman has written and edited 70 books and collections of writings. She has written about many topics. These include being Jewish, body image, and LGBTQ+ families. She has always made an effort to write about groups that are not often seen in books. Some of her first works were about Jewish lesbians. She later became known for her children's books with LGBTQ+ and Jewish themes.
Newman's short story A Letter to Harvey Milk has been made into a musical.
Heather Has Two Mommies
Her most famous book is Heather Has Two Mommies. It was first published in 1989. Newman wrote it after a lesbian family in her neighborhood asked for a book about families like theirs. People told her to use a different name for the book because of possible problems. But she decided not to.
Heather Has Two Mommies is about a young girl who has two mothers. The book was republished in 2015. In the early 1990s, many gay and lesbian families found that this book showed their own families for the first time.
However, Heather Has Two Mommies has caused a lot of discussion. The book has been on the American Library Association's list of "Most Banned and Challenged Books" many times. This means some people tried to remove it from libraries. For example, in the late 1990s, a library district in Wichita Falls faced protests. People wanted to move this book out of the children's section. In 2000, a judge said this attempt was against the law.
Despite these challenges, the book received a good review from School Library Journal. It has also won awards, including:
- American Library Association Rainbow List pick (2016)
- Lambda Literary Award for Children/Young Adult nominee
Other Notable Works
In 1997, another of her books, Belinda's Bouquet, faced a similar challenge. A school district in Canada banned it. This ban was later overturned by the highest court in Canada in 2002.
She also wrote The Boy Who Cried Fabulous and Hachiko Waits in 2004.
Remembering Matthew Shepard
In 1998, Newman was asked to speak at the University of Wyoming's Gay Awareness Week. She planned to talk about the challenges Heather Has Two Mommies faced. Two days before her speech, she learned that a student named Matthew Shepard had been attacked. He was in a coma. Shepard was on the committee that invited her. He passed away the morning of her speech.
Newman felt it was very important to still come and speak. Committee members left an empty seat for him in the front row. In her speech, she promised to help keep his memory alive. Matthew Shepard's death deeply affected her. She still dedicates all her talks on LGBTQ+ rights to him.
Newman has written two books about Shepard:
- October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard: A collection of 60 poems about his death and its effects.
- Always Matt: A book-length poem for teens. She wrote this book when the Matthew Shepard Foundation asked her to write about Shepard's life for young readers.
Teaching and Presentations
Newman has taught creative writing at several universities. She also leads private workshops. She is a teacher at the School of Writing at Spalding University. Newman gives talks at schools, libraries, and conferences. She speaks about Matthew Shepard, her experiences as a lesbian Jew, and how books are sometimes challenged. She also talks about Yiddish words and phrases in her writing. She grew up hearing many Yiddish words in Brooklyn. She feels her writing is most real when she includes them.
Awards and Recognition
Lesléa Newman has received many awards for her writing. These include:
- Creative Writing Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts
- The James Baldwin award for Cultural Achievement
- The Dog Writers Association of America's Best Book of Fiction Award
- A Parents' Choice Silver Medal
Nine of her books have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award. In 2009, she received the Alice B. Award. Her children's picture books Mommy, Mama, and Me and Daddy, Papa and Me were Stonewall Honor Books in 2010. Her 2013 book October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepherd also received this honor. In 2019, she won a National Jewish Book Award for Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story. In 2023, The Advocate magazine named her one of their "Advocates of the Year."
In 2009, she was the first judge for the Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry Prize.
See also
- Fat Chance
- LGBT culture in New York City
- List of LGBT people from New York City
- NYC Pride March
