The Odyssey Bookshop: Peggy Gillespie and Lesléa Newman

Join us in person on Thursday, October 26 at 7 PM as Peggy Gillespie talks about Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families, and Lesléa Newman talks about Always Matt: A Tribute to Matthew Shepard.

About Authentic Selves

Groundbreaking in its depictions of joy and community, Authentic Selves celebrates trans and nonbinary people and their families in stunning photographs and their own words. Foreword by transgender activist Jazz Jennings and her mom and fellow activist, Jeanette Jennings.

So often trans and nonbinary people's stories are told only through the lens of their struggles and challenges, including their political battles for legal rights, but trans and nonbinary people live rich and fulfilling lives full of joy and community too. Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families is a sweeping compilation of life stories and portraits of trans and nonbinary people, as well as their partners, parents, children, siblings, and chosen family members.

The compelling stories in Authentic Selves provide a glimpse into the real lives, both the challenges and the triumphs, of these remarkable people and their families--people like Senator Sarah McBride, disability justice advocate Parker Glick, drag entertainer TAYLOR ALXNDR, September 11th first responder Jozeppi Angelo Morelli, model Lana Patel, youth activist Elliott Bertrand, and so many others--all of whom are working to create a more just, diverse, and compassionate world.

Developed in collaboration with PFLAG National and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund.

About Peggy Gillespie

Peggy Gillespie is the Co-Founder/Director of the national non-profit social justice organization, Family Diversity Projects. She is the Editor-in-Chief of all of Family Diversity Project’s 8 exhibits and books including the award-winning, Love Makes a Family: Portraits of LGBT People and their Families. Ms. Gillespie has worked as a freelance journalist for forty years and written major feature articles for the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine among others. In addition she is the co-author of Less Stress (Signet) and the memoir of renowned choreographer/dancer Bill T. Jones entitled Last Night on Earth (Pantheon). A Smith College graduate and a certified social worker, Peggy was the first Assistant Director of Jon Kabat Zinn's Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program at UMass Medical Center. She was the Mindfulness/Buddhist Co-Advisor to Mt Holyoke for ten years. She currently leads a writing workshop at Christopher Heights Assisted Living in Northampton, and teaches meditation at Insight Meditation Community of Western MA in Easthampton.

About Always Matt

A poignant tribute to the life of Matthew Shepard and his legacy in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, published on the 25th anniversary of the formation of the Matthew Shepard Foundation

On the night of October 6, 1998, in Laramie, Wyoming, Matthew Wayne Shepard (1976–1998) was brutally killed solely because he was gay. It was a shocking murder that was nationally covered in the media, and it became a rallying cry for the LGBTQ+ rights movement. In 2009, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed by President Barack Obama, expanding the federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

With a foreword by Jason Collins—the first openly gay, active player in the NBA—and written by Lesléa Newman—author of the Stonewall Honor–winning novel-in-verse October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard, and a friend of the Shepard family—Always Matt is an emotional yet ultimately hopeful look at the progress that’s been made, as well as the work that still continues, in advocating for the dignity and equality of all people. Without shying away from the pain and tragedy of his death, moving, lyrical prose and minimalist line drawings present a celebration of his incredible life. Twenty-five years after the formation of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which dedicates its mission to erasing hate, Matthew’s story still resonates for those who lived through it, and remains a vital piece of LGBTQ+ history for younger generations to learn.

About Lesléa Newman

Lesléa Newman has created more than 80 books for readers of all ages including the dual memoir-in-verse, I Carry My Mother and I Wish My Father, the novel-in-verse, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard, the short story collection, A Letter to Harvey Milk, the picture books Sparkle Boy, and Gittel’s Journey: An Ellis Island Story, and the children’s classic, Heather Has Two Mommies. Her literary awards include two National Jewish Book Awards, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors and a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. A past poet laureate of Northampton, she lives in Holyoke.