Lesléa New­man has cre­at­ed eighty-eight books for read­ers of all ages includ­ing the mem­oirs-in-verse, I Car­ry My Moth­er and I Wish My Father, and the children’s books,Joy­ful Song: A Nam­ing Sto­ry; The Bab­ka Sis­ters; Git­tel’s Jour­ney: An Ellis Island Sto­ry; Wel­com­ing Eli­jah: A Pasover Tale with a TailL; and Ket­zel, The Cat Who Com­posed. Her lit­er­ary awards include two Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards, the Syd­ney Tay­lor Body-of-Work Award, a poet­ry fel­low­ship from the Nation­al Endow­ment for the Arts and the Mass­a­chu­setts Book Award. A for­mer poet lau­re­ate of Northamp­ton, MA, she teach­es at the Naslund-Mann School of Pro­fes­sion­al Writ­ing. Her newest children’s book, Some­thing Sweet: A Sit­ting Shi­va Sto­ry will be pub­lished in March, 2026.