Lesléa Newman (born November 5, 1955, in Brooklyn, New York City) is an American author, editor, and feminist best known for the children's book Heather Has Two Mommies. Four of her young adult novels have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, making her one of the most celebrated authors in the category.

Personal life

Newman was born as Leslie Newman to Jewish parents in New York City in 1955. She developed her pen name by combining her birth name, Leslie, with her Hebrew name, Leah. She started writing poems when she was 8 to cope with her sadness over her family moving from Brooklyn to Long Island. Newman began writing more seriously as a teenager by participating in poetry contests sponsored by Seventeen magazine. She was voted "Class Wit" in high school.

In 1977, Newman spend some time living on Kibbutz Ga'aton in Israel. She attended ulpan, worked on a farm, and volunteered at the children's house. She later visited again as part of a PJ Library program for children's authors.

Newman studied education and poetics at the University of Vermont and Naropa Institute, respectively. She was mentored by Allen Ginsberg in her poetry program. She has cited Ginsberg and poet Grace Paley as two of her greatest influences. While she has written poetry, prose, and nonfiction, she says that poetry has always been her first love as a writer.

Her relationship with her parents was strained as a teenager and throughout her early adulthood. Upon moving out, she had very little contact with them for decades, in part because of their "loud and clear" expectation for her to have a traditional heterosexual marriage. She and her parents reconciled after her mother had a health crisis that left her hospitalized for 10 days. Newman stayed until her mother was well enough to be discharged, after which point the two "could[n't] remember what [they] had ever fought about." After her release, the two maintained a close relationship. They called daily and visited frequently. She was her mother's primary caregiver in the months before her death. Shortly before dying, her mother gave her permission to write about the experience on the condition that "I'll never have to read it." After her mother's death from bladder cancer and COPD, she published a poetry collection about her, titled I Carry My Mother.

Newman stayed with her father for several weeks after her mother's death, as he struggled to take care of himself. Her father died five years later, after a year in an assisted living facility. There was no clear cause of death, and he had been given a clean bill of health just a week prior. Newman believes that it was his grief that killed him. Newman's commitment to social justice has brought together her Jewish and lesbian identities.

Career

Lesléa Newman has written and edited 70 books and anthologies. She has written about such topics as being a Jew, body image and eating disorders, lesbianism, lesbian and gay parenting, and her gender role as a femme. She has made a point throughout her career to write about underrepresented groups. Some of her earliest works, written shortly after she came out, are about Jewish lesbians. She later became known for her children's literature featuring LGBT and Jewish themes.

Newman's short story A Letter to Harvey Milk has been adapted into a musical.

Her best-known work is the controversial Heather Has Two Mommies. Newman wrote the book when approached by a lesbian family in her neighborhood who lamented the fact that there were no books they could give their daughter that featured families like theirs. She was repeatedly advised to publish the book under a pen name in anticipation of the backlash, but declined. That ban was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada in its 2002 decision Chamberlain v Surrey School District No 36.

She also authored The Boy Who Cried Fabulous and Hachiko Waits in 2004.

In 1998, Newman was invited to be the keynote speaker for the University of Wyoming's Gay Awareness Week. She had intended to discuss the backlash to Heather Has Two Mommies. Two days before she was scheduled to speak, the president of the LGBT Student Organization called to tell her that fellow member Matthew Shepard had been attacked and was not found for 18 hours, at which point he was in a coma. He offered to let her cancel her appearance, but she felt it was important to come. Shepard, who was on the committee that selected her, died the morning of that Newman's appearance. Committee members had left an empty seat for him in the front row. In her remarks, she promised attendees that she would do all she could to keep his memory alive. Newman was deeply affected by his death and continues to open all lectures on LGBT rights within a dedication to him. She has written two books about Shepard: October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard, a collection of 60 poems exploring his death and its impact, and Always Matt, a book-length poem for teens. She wrote Always Matt when asked by the Matthew Shepard Foundation to write something about Shepard's life for young readers. Newman gives presentations at schools, libraries, and conferences on topics including Matthew Shepard, her experience as a lesbian Jew, gender stereotypes in children's literature, censorship of LGBT literature, and HIV/AIDS.

She often incorporates Yiddish words and phrases into her work. She heard lots of Yinglish growing up in Brooklyn, particularly from her grandmothers, and says that she does her most authentic writing when she incorporates it. In 1990, many gay and lesbian couples and their children found the first reflections of their families in this picture book.

However, Heather Has Two Mommies has faced a lot of controversy. The book has landed on the American Library Association's Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books between 1990 and 1999 (7), as well as between 2010 and 2019 (87).

In the late Nineties, the Wichita Falls library district faced harsh backlash from library-card holders "petition[ed] the city to move controversial materials out of the municipal library's children's section." Questionable material included Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite. In 2000, a federal judge ruled that the petition was unconstitutional.

  • Lambda Literary Award for Children/Young Adult nominee

The book was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's/Young Adult Literature. In 2019, she received a National Jewish Book Award for Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story. In 2023, she was named one of The Advocates Advocates of the Year.

In 2009, she was the inaugural judge of the Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry Prize.

Bibliography

Juvenile fiction

  • Heather Has Two Mommies. Illustrated by Laura Cornell. Alyson Press. 1989.
  • American Library Association Rainbow List pick (2016)
  • Saturday is Pattyday. Illustrated by Annette Hegel. 1993.
  • Lambda Literary Award nominee for Children's/Young Adult
  • Pigs, Pigs, Pigs! Illustrated by Erika Oiler. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. 2003
  • The Boy Who Cried Fabulous. Illustrated by Peter Ferguson. Tricycle Press. March 15, 2004.
  • Where Is Bear? Illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev. HMH Books. October 2004. .
  • Hachiko Waits. Illustrated by Machiyo Kodaira. Henry Holt and Company. October 2004.
  • A Fire Engine for Ruthie. Illustrated by Cyd Moore. Clarion Books. 2004.
  • The Best Cat in the Word. Illustrated by Ronald Himler. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. 2004.
  • The Eight Nights of Chanukah. Illustrated by Elivia Savadier. Harry N. Abrams. October 2005.
  • Skunk's Spring Surprise. Illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. January 1, 2007.
  • Daddy's Song. Illustrated by Karen RItz. Henry Holt and Company. April 17, 2007.
  • Runaway Dreidel! Illustrated by Krysten Broker. Square Fish. October 2, 2007.
  • Daddy, Papa, and Me. illustrated by Carol Thompson. Tricycle Press. June 9, 2009.
  • Stonewall Book Award Nominee for Children's and Young Adult Literature (2010)
  • Mommy, Mama, and Me. Illustrated by Carol Thompson. Tricycle Press. June 9, 2009.
  • Stonewall Book Award Nominee for Children's and Young Adult Literature (2010)
  • Just Like Mama. Illustrated by Julia Gorton. Harry N. Abrams. April 2010.
  • harMiss Tutu's Star. Illustrated by Carey Armstrong-Ellis. Harry N. Abrams. August 1, 2010.
  • Donovan's Big Day. Tricycle Press. 2011. .
  • A Sweet Passover. Illustrated by David Slonim. ABRAMS. March 2012.
  • A Kiss on the Keppie. Illustrated by Katherine Blackmore. Amazon Publishing. 2012.
  • Here Is the World: A Year of Jewish Holidays. Illustrated by Susan Gal. ABRAMS. September 2, 2014.
  • My Name is Aviva. Lerner Publishing Group. August 2015.
  • Ketzel, the Cat who Composed Illustrated by Amy June Bates. Candlewick Press. 2015.
  • Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Award Winner (2016)
  • Hanukkah Delight! Illustrated by Amy Husband. Lerner Publishing Group.. 2016.
  • Sparkle Boy. Illustrated by Maria Mola. Lee & Low Books Incorporated. 2017.
  • Baby's Blessings. Lerner Publishing Group. October 2019. .
  • Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story. Illustrated by Amy June Bates. ABRAMS. February 5, 2019.
  • Welcoming Elijah: A Passover with a Tale. Illustrated by Susan Gal. Charlesbridge Publishing, Incorporated. January 28, 2020.
  • National Jewish Book Award for Children's Picture Books
  • Golden Kite Award nominee for Picture Book Illustration

Young Adult Fiction

  • Good Enough to Eat: A Novel. Firebrand Books. 1986.
  • Fat Chance. Livewire. 1994.
  • Jailbait. Delacorte Press. 2005.

Adult fiction

  • In Every Laugh a Tear: A Novel. New Victoria Publishers. 1992.
  • The Reluctant Daughter. Bold Strokes Books. 2009.

Short story collections

  • A Letter to Harvey Milk: Short Stories. University of Wisconsin Press. 1988.
  • Secrets: Short Stories. New Victoria Publishers. 1990.
  • Every Woman's Dream: Short Fiction. New Victoria Publishers. 1994.
  • Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear. University of California. 1997.
  • Girls Will be Girls: A Novella and Short Stories. Alyson Books. 2000.
  • She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not: Romantic Fiction. Alyson Books. 2002.
  • The Best Short Stories of Leslea Newman. Alyson Books. 2003.

Poetry collections

  • Love Me Like You Mean It: Poems. The University of California. 1987.
  • Sweet Dark Places. Windstorm Collective. 1991.
  • Still Life with Buddy: A Novel Told in Fifty Poems. Pride Publications. 1997.
  • The Little Butch Book. New Victoria Publishers. 1998.
  • Lambda Literary Award Nominee for Lesbian Poetry
  • Signs of Love. Windstorm Creative. 2000.
  • Lambda Literary Award Nominee for Lesbian Poetry
  • Nobody's Mother. Orchard House Press. November 2008.
  • October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard. Candlewick Press. September 25, 2012.
  • Goodreads Choices Award Nominee for Poetry
  • I Remember: Hachiko Speaks. Finishing Line Press. September 19, 2013.
  • I Carry My Mother. Headmistress Press. January 2, 2015.
  • Lovely. Headmistress Press. January 2, 2018.
  • I Wish My Father. Headmistress Press. January 2, 2021.

Nonfiction

  • SomeBody to Love: A Guide to Loving the Body You Have. Third Side Press. 1991.
  • Eating Our Hearts Out: Personal Accounts of Women's Relationship to Food. Crossing Press. March 1, 1993.
  • The Femme Mystique. Alyson Books. June 1, 1995.
  • Write from the Heart: Inspiration and Exercises for Women who Want to Write. Ten Speed Press. 2003.

Editor

  • A Loving Testimony: Remembering Loved Ones Lost to AIDS: An Anthology. Crossing Press. April 11, 1995.
  • Lambda Literary Award Nominee for Anthologies/Nonfiction (1996)
  • My Lover is a Woman. Ballantine Books. 1996.
  • Pillow Talk: Lesbian Stories Between the Covers. Alyson Books. May 1, 1998.
  • Pillow Talk II: More Lesbian Stories Between the Covers. Alyson Books. July 1, 2000.
  • Bedroom Eyes: Stories of Lesbians in the Boudoir. Alyson Books. November 1, 2002.
  • Sappho (Gay & Lesbian Writers Series). Chelsea House Pub. March 1, 2005.

Contributor

  • Women on Women: An Anthology of American Lesbian Short Fiction. Plume. May 30, 1990.
  • Bubbe Meisehs by Shayneh Maidelehs: An Anthology of Poetry by Jewish Granddaughters About Our Grandmothers. HerBooks. December 1, 1991.
  • Xanadu. Tor Books. March 15, 1994.
  • Garden Variety Dykes: Lesbian Traditions in Gardening. HerBooks. April 1, 1994.
  • Not the Only One. Alyson Books. January 1, 1995.
  • Am I Blue?: Coming Out from the Silence. HarperTeen. April 15, 1995.
  • Stonewall Book Award for Literature (1995)
  • Lambda Literary Award for Young Adult / Children's Book (1995)