Hello community!

I hope you and yours are well. Amidst the chaos of our world, some really nice things have also been happening. In the spirit of our joy is resistance, here are some highlights of my author journey to share:

1. THE GENDER BINARY IS A BIG LIE was named to the Bank Street College of Education’s “The Best Children’s Books of the Year: 2025 Edition”! On page 70 they listed my nonfiction book, cheering it being “An engaging and informative look at historical conceptions of gender identity, with close examination of a wide range of primary sources.”

Yay!

2. Who’s that woman holding a copy of LIKE THAT ELEANOR in the photo above, you may be wondering? That’s Eleanor Roosevelt’s great-granddaughter Anna Eleanor Fierst, standing outside Val-Kill. Anna kindly gave us a blurb of the picture book, too!

“Lee Wind has used true examples from Eleanor Roosevelt’s remarkable life to demonstrate a timeless message for children – life can be unfair, but change is possible when allies forge new pathways to inclusiveness.”
—Anna Eleanor Fierst

I’m so honored and excited that the family and the Eleanor Roosevelt Center loves the book — and we’re talking about doing an event there in August. For those of you in the New York area, stay tuned for more info on that! (And thanks to both Anna and the Eleanor Roosevelt Center for the photo.)

3. The illustrator of LIKE THAT ELEANOR, Kelly Mangan, and I were interviewed on the “Talking About Kids” podcast, and the episode just dropped! “How Eleanor Roosevelt can inspire kids today to be allies with Kelly Mangan and Lee Wind”

It was a great conversation, and you can listen to it wherever you listen to podcasts.

4. I had an amazing experience moderating a keynote panel with four other Queer KidLit authors at the American Booksellers Association’s Children’s Institute conference this month. We were the first keynote of the conference Saturday, and I was in conversation with Claribel Ortega (who has a new middle grade Witchlings book out, Scepter of Memories), em dickson (with a new nonfiction book for young readers: Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary and Gender-Diverse People You Should Know, ND Stevenson (of Nimona fame, with a new middle grade series opener Scarlet Morning, and Petra Lord (whose debut is the YA Queen of Faces — also a series opener.)

The audience of over 300 independent booksellers was super-engaged and enthusiastic. Our conversation, called “There’s no such thing as a silent ally” covered magical systems, Queer creation in this moment of persistence, who we’re writing for, the power of booksellers to be allies, and grow new allies too (a.k.a. readers who experience books that give them empathy for others and empower them to help make our world a better place.) You can read about it in PW here.

A heady moment was the applause at the end of our panel… especially when the audience rose to their feet! I said, “hold on, if you’re going to stand, I have to take a photo of you.” And they cheered so loudly when I took the photo, I said, “okay, well if you’re going to do that, I have to take a video.” Here’s that clip:

5. In other lovely news, I’m going to ALA Annual in Philadelphia! If you’ll be there, too, please swing by the IBPA booth #1547 to say “hi!” and get some fun bookmarks — and librarian friends, if you time it right, you can get a signed copy of Like That Eleanor.

My schedule of events: Friday: I’ll be moderating a morning panel at the Library Insights Summit for author publishers and then having a lunchtime keynote discussion with Sarah and Ian Hoffman whose book is included in the current SCOTUS case. Saturday: I’ll be signing copies of Like That Eleanor at the IPG booth 1pm Eastern. Sunday: I’ll be moderating a panel on the diversity stage at 9:30am; co-presenting at the PopTop Stage about Indie Publishing and Libraries at 11:30am; and hosting the Book Buzz Indie Book Bingo game at 1:45pm. And on Monday at 10am I’ll be signing copies of Like That Eleanor at the IBPA booth, where I should be the rest of the time!

And Monday evening, for those of you in Philadelphia, there’s a free event about book banning where I’ll be sharing about my books and how folks can push back against book banning!

6. Continuing that thought, as part of my day-job for the Independent Book Publishers Association, I co-created the WE ARE STRONGER THAN CENSORSHIP program to pull the brakes on the runaway train of book banning. We’re raising money (and selling cool swag, like STRONG LIKE A READER, STRONG LIKE A LIBRARIAN, STRONG LIKE A BOOKSELLER T-shirts) to buy and donate two books to offset every one book challenge. We’ve raised enough money to buy 2,000 books to offset 1,000 book challenges so far! You can learn more here: https://www.wearestrongerthancensorship.org/

7. Queer-inclusive KidLit Books to recommend! In addition to my fellow panelist’s books from Children’s Institute, I want to give a special shout-out to The Rainbow Sheep by David Hayward, published by Beaming Books. It made me cry – happy cry.

And that’s our update. For those new to these monthly sharings, welcome!

For everyone, stay safe and strong,
Lee