October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard
Publisher
Candlewick Press
Publication Year
2012
ISBN
9780763658076
Pages
128 pages
Genre
historical
Format
novel in verse
Item Type
Fiction
Annotation
On the night of October 6, 1998, twenty-one-year-old gay college student Matthew Shepard was lured from a Wyoming bar by two young men, savagely beaten, tied to a remote fence, and left to die. In a deeply personal response to that tragic day and its brutal aftermath, Leslea Newman explores the impact of the vicious crime through fictitious monologues from various points of view.
Grade Level
9-12
Diversity Topics
LGBTQ (Gender and Sexuality); Gay/Lesbian; homosexual; gay; gay adult
Main Character
multiple
Race/Ethnicities
multiple
Family Formation
multiple
LGBTQ+
male/male
Awards
Stonewall Book Award-Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children's and Young Adult Literature Award, 2013, Honor, Children's (Young Adult Literature)
Keywords
hate crimes; law and crime; social issues; murder; Laramie; Wyoming; poetry; gay awareness week; grief
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Newman, Leslea, "October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard" (2012). Diverse Families. 1307.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/1307