Lesléa (pronounced "Lez-LEE-uh") Newman is the author of 65 books including A Letter to Harvey Milk, Nobody's Mother, 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 Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, 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, and Daddy, Papa, and Me.

 

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. Other topics Ms. Newman explores include AIDS, eating disorders, butch/femme relationships and sexual abuse. Her award-winning short story, A Letter To Harvey Milk has been made into a film and adapted for the stage. 

 

In addition to being an author, Ms. Newman is a popular guest lecturer, and has spoken on college campuses across the country including Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Oregon, Bryn Mawr College, Smith College and the University of Judaism. From 2005-2009, Lesléa was on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. From 2008-2010, she served as the Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA. She has taught fiction writing at Clark University and currently she is a faculty mentor at Spalding University's brief residency MFA in Writing program [www.spalding.edu/mfa]. 

 

Recently published books include the poetry collection, I Carry My Mother (Headmistress Press, 2015), the picture book, Here Is the World: A Year of Jewish Holidays (Abrams, 2014) and a new edition of Heather Has Two Mommies with brand new illustrations by Laura Cornell. Forthcoming titles include two picture books: My Name Is Aviva (Kar-Ben, 2015) and Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed (Candlewick, 2015).

 

Visit her website at: www.lesleanewman.com

Leslea Newman