Lesléa Newman (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)

Lesléa Newman will receive the Matthew Shepard Foundation’s Making a Difference Award. Newman is the author of more than 70 books, including her iconic children’s book, Heather Has Two Mommies.

The award is given to a person or persons who, at a national or international level, has produced substantive social, legal, and/or economic progress for members of the LGBTQ+ community by being out and proud, or influential in support of equality.

Her children’s books that portray a variety of LGBT families and the impact they’ve had would qualify her for the award. But Newman the Matthew Shepard murder was especially close to her heart.

In October 1998, Newman was invited to be the keynote speaker for Gay Awareness Week at the University of Wyoming. She arrived on campus the day that Matthew Shepard died. She said that event changed her life forever.

In 2012, Newman published a book of poetry called October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard, which explores the murder from the point of view of everything around him.

“Receiving the Making a Difference award from the Matthew Shepard Foundation means more to me than words can say,” Newman said in an email. “A friend of mine once said, ‘It’s great when a book does well; it’s even better when a book does good.’ Knowing that a book I wrote is being used to make the world a better place is so important to me. It’s the best thing that can happen to a writer. I look forward to the day when books like October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard won’t have to be written because we are all being kind to one another, and hatred has been replaced by understanding, acceptance, respect, and love.

— David Taffet

The book received an American Library Association Stonewall Honor. Here’s a poem from the book (reprinted with permission from her publisher):

The Fence
(that night)

I held him all night long
He was heavy as a broken heart
Tears fell from his unblinking eyes
He was dead weight yet he kept breathing
He was heavy as a broken heart
His own heart wouldn’t stop beating
He was dead weight yet he kept breathing
His face streaked with moonlight and blood
His own heart wouldn’t stop beating
The cold wind wouldn’t stop blowing
His face streaked with moonlight and blood
I tightened my grip and held on
The cold wind wouldn’t stop blowing
We were out on the prairie alone
I tightened my grip and held on
I saw what was done to this child
We were out on the prairie alone
Their truck was the last thing he saw
I saw what was done to this child
I cradled him just like a mother
Their truck was the last thing he saw
Tears fell from his unblinking eyes
I cradled him just like a mother
I held him all night long

OCTOBER MOURNING: A SONG FOR MATTHEW SHEPARD. Copyright © 2012 by Lesléa Newman. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.