Celebrating Hachiko: All About Akitas with Lesléa Newman

About the Event:

Hachiko is well known as the Japanese Akita dog who waited for his owner at Shibuya train station for almost 10 years after the owner's passing. The Japan Society of Boston is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Hachiko's birth with an event all about Akitas!

Lesléa Newman will be discussing her book, Hachiko Waits, a book for young readers that has won several awards including the Dog Writer's Association of America Best Book of Fiction (2005) and the Alabama Emphasis on Reading Children's Choice Book Award (2005–2006), as well as her writing process and connection to Japan.

We will also be joined by the president of Big East Akita Rescue, Jo Ann Dimon, to hear more about the special akita breed.

A portion of donations received for this event will be given to Big East Akita Rescue. They are a nonprofit, hands-on, volunteer run Akita rescue group covering the Northeast to help unwanted, abused, and neglected Akitas in need. Please consider donating to help support their cause.

This is a free, hour-long talk with Q&A hosted on Zoom. Children and families are welcome.

Lesléa Newman

Lesléa (pronounced “Lez-LEE-uh”) Newman is the author of 85 books for readers of all ages. She has received many literary awards, including creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, two National Jewish Book Awards, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, the Massachusetts Book Award, two Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Awards as well as the Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award, the Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award, a Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fiction Writing grant, the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, the Cat Writers’ Association Muse Medallion, and the Dog Writers’ Association of America’s Maxwell Medallion. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award Finalists. 

In addition to being an author, Ms. Newman is a popular guest lecturer, and has spoken on college campuses across the country including Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Oregon, Bryn Mawr College, Smith College and the University of Judaism. From 2005-2009, Lesléa was on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. From 2008-2010, she served as the Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA. She has taught fiction writing at Clark University and currently she is a faculty mentor at Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing.