Award Winning Author, Lesléa Newman, visits Peaks Island Monday, April 8th at 7:00pm at the Peaks Island Community Center

Peaks Island, Maine - Join the Peaks Island Branch of the Portland Public Library for an evening with Lesléa Newman on Monday, April 8th at 7:00pm in the Peaks Island Community Center.  Lesléa Newman has written over 60 books, many of them for children and adolescents, including the children's classic, Heather Has Two Mommies, the young adult novel, Jailbait, the middle grade novel, Hachiko Waits, and the adult poetry collection, Still Life with Buddy. She has been active during her long and productive working life helping to educate kids and adults on LGBT issues.

Her latest book, October Mourning, is a cycle of poems about the death of Matthew Shepard, the gay twenty-one-year old University of Wyoming student who was lured from a bar by two young men, savagely beaten, tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, and left to die. The book, a searing and beautiful tribute to Shepard, has recently has been named an American Library Association 2013 Stonewall Honor Book.

Lesléa lives in Northampton, Massachusetts and is a warm, vibrant, and experienced presenter. The event at the Peaks Island Library will be geared to adults (and to adolescents, ages fifteen and older). Lesléa will speak about the writing process and read from her book, October Mourning. Refreshments will be served and her book will be on sale after the reading.