But that day, there was little to celebrate. The book began on October 12, 1998, the day I flew across the country to give a speech entitled ' Heather Has Two Mommies: Homophobia, Censorship, and Family Values' at the University of Wyoming in celebration of National Coming Out Day. October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard was eleven and a half years in the making. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. 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. 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. October Mourning, a novel in verse, is her deeply felt response to the events of that tragic day. Shaken, the author addressed the large audience that gathered, but she remained haunted by Matthew’s murder. Gay Awareness Week was beginning at the University of Wyoming, and the keynote speaker was Lesléa Newman, discussing her book Heather Has Two Mommies. 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.

October Mourning by Lesléa Newman