about the book
The week of October 6, 1998, Leslea Newman was the keynote speaker for Gay Awareness Week at the University of Wyoming. The night of October 6, Matthew Shepard, a gay 21-year-old college student, drank with some other young men in a bar, and then was lured out to the country, beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die.
Shaken, Leslea addressed her audience and spoke words of encouragement and comfort, but the shock of it never left her.
Finding an outlet in poetry, Leslea wrote 68 poems in tribute to the last moments of Matthew’s life from a number of perspectives: the stars that saw him, the deer that kept him company, even the fence to which he was tied.
To find out more about Matthew Shepard’s life and death, check out the website, Matthew’s Story.
about the author
Growing up in Brighton Beach, New York, Leslea Newman could see the ocean from her window. Even though the family moved to Long Island, Leslea returned to visit often with her two grandmas. She’d sit by the window, reading and writing poetry. After high school, she had several poems published in Seventeen magazine.
Leslea received a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Vermont and a Certificate of Poetics from the Naropa Institute. She worked her way through school as a sales clerk, freelance reporter, waitress, secretary, and preschool teacher. After graduating, she taught writing at the University of Southern Maine, Holyoke College, and at numerous workshops.
Leslea now lives in western Massachusetts with her fluffy white cat, Princess Sheba Darling. She writes with a Bic pen in a spiral notebook, transferring to the computer to edit. In her spare time, Leslea volunteers for the Big Sister program, does collage art, and shops! She has been named Poet Laureate of Northhampton.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview : School Library Journal
Author interview : Matthew’s Place
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