BOOK OF THE MONTH: APRIL! OCTOBER MOURNING: A SONG FOR ANDREW SHEPARD BY LESLEA NEWMAN

Hello Spartans! I choose this month's book of the month based on the fact that April is National Poetry Month. October Mourning: A Song for Andrew Shepard is full of heart-rending poems depicting the events and circumstances of the hate crime that caused the tragic death of Andrew Shepard. Please read on for more information about this unforgettable novel in verse.

On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay twenty-one-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard was lured from a Wyoming bar by two young men, savagely beaten, tied to a remote fence, and left to die. Gay Awareness Week was beginning at the University of Wyoming, and the keynote speaker was Lesléa Newman, discussing her book Heather Has Two Mommies. Shaken, the author addressed the large audience that gathered, but she remained haunted by Matthew’s murder. October Mourning, a novel in verse, is her deeply felt response to the events of that tragic day. Using her poetic imagination, the author creates fictitious monologues from various points of view, including the fence Matthew was tied to, the stars that watched over him, the deer that kept him company, and Matthew himself. More than a decade later, this stunning cycle of sixty-eight poems serves as an illumination for readers too young to remember, and as a powerful, enduring tribute to Matthew Shepard’s life. (goodreads.com)