Lesléa Newman (born 1955, Brooklyn, NY) is the author of over 50 books including Heather Has Two Mommies, A Letter To Harvey Milk, Writing From The Heart, In Every Laugh a Tear, The Femme Mystique, Still Life with Buddy, Fat Chance and Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear.
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 two 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: Gloria Goes To Gay Pride, Belinda’s Bouquet, Too Far Away to Touch, and Saturday Is Pattyday.
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 a faculty member of the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. Currently, she is the Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA.
Books in order of publication:
| Good Enough to Eat | 1986 |
| A Letter to Harvey Milk: Short Stories | 1988 |
| Heather Has Two Mommies | 1989 |
| Belinda’s Bouquet | 1989 |
| Secrets | 1990 |
| Gloria Goes to Gay Pride | 1991 |
| Somebody to Love: A Guide to Loving the Body You Have | 1991 |
| Eating Our Hearts Out: Personal Accounts of Women’s Relationship to Food | 1993 |
| Saturday Is Pattyday | 1993 |
| Love Me Like You Mean It | 1993 |
| Fat Chance | 1994 |
| Every Woman’s Dream | 1994 |
| The Femme Mystique | 1995 |
| A Loving Testimony: Remembering Loved Ones Lost to AIDS: An Anthology | 1995 |
| Too Far Away to Touch | 1995 |
| My Lover Is a Woman | 1996 |
| Remember That | 1996 |
| Matzo Ball Moon | 1998 |
| Pillow Talk: Lesbian Stories Between the Covers | 1998 |
| Little Butch Book | 1998 |
| In Every Laugh a Tear | 1998 |
| Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear | 2000 |
| Girls Will Be Girls: A Novella and Short Stories | 2000 |
| Pillow Talk II: More Lesbian Stories Between the Covers | 2000 |
| Cats, Cats, Cats! | 2001 |
| Runaway Dreidel! | 2002 |
| She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not: Romantic Fiction | 2002 |
| Dogs, Dogs, Dogs! | 2002 |
| Bedroom Eyes: Stories of Lesbians in the Boudoir | 2002 |
| Felicia’s Favorite Story | 2002 |
| The Best Short Stories of Lesléa Newman | 2003 |
| Pigs, Pigs, Pigs! | 2003 |
| Write from the Heart: Inspiration and Exercises for Women Who Want to Write | 2003 |
| Hachiko Waits | 2004 |
| The Boy Who Cried Fabulous | 2004 |
| A Fire Engine for Ruthie | 2004 |
| Where Is Bear? | 2004 |
| Jailbait | 2005 |
| The Eight Nights of Chanukah | 2005 |
| The Best Cat in the World | 2006 |
| Skunk’s Spring Surprise | 2007 |
| Daddy’s Song | 2007 |
| Mommy, Mama, and Me | 2009 |
| Daddy, Papa, and Me | 2009 |
| The Reluctant Daughter | 2009 |
| Just Like Mama | 2010 |
| Miss Tutu’s Star | 2010 |
| Donovan’s Big Day | 2011 |
| October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard | 2012 |
| A Sweet Passover | 2012 |
| A Kiss on the Keppie | 2012 |
| Here Is the World: A Year of Jewish Holidays | 2014 |
| Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed | 2015 |
| I Carry My Mother | 2015 |
| My Name Is Aviva | 2015 |
| Hanukkah Delight! | 2016 |
| Sparkle Boy | 2017 |
| Gittel’s Journey: An Ellis Island Story | 2019 |
| Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale with a Tail | 2020 |
| Remembering Ethan | 2020 |
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