Her grandfather built their house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass, but ended up being lynched after becoming the city’s first Black detective. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that violence has changed the family’s course. Ten-year-old Joan, her sister, and mother have to flee a dangerous father and make their way home to Memphis. Memphis has drawn comparisons to The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and is recommended to fans of that book. It was a national bestseller and was selected as a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick on Today. It was named as one of the most anticipated books of the year by publications like Oprah Daily, Essence, Glamour, and Marie Claire. Her first book Memphis was released in 2022 to great reviews. In times of extreme joy, we pray.” For Stringfellow, that meant writing as that was the closest thing she knew to praying. Tara called her mother to talk and her mother told her: “In times of extreme sorrow, we pray. She found herself unprepared for all of the hate and nationalism that was going in on the country surrounding the 2016 election. Her dive into fiction was inspired by racism. One of her earliest memories is of her father pointing out to her that she would have to write better that Edgar Allan Poe if she wanted to make it because she was a woman and nonwhite. She has said that she comes from a long line of authors. In addition to her novel, Stringfellow has written for many publications in her career, including Collective Unrest, Minerva Rising, Jet Fuel Review, WomensArts Quarterly Journal, and Apogee Journal. She enjoys her life there as she is able to sit on her porch swing every night with her husband, listening to records and talking with their neighbors. She has lived all around the world in her life with stops in Okinawa, Ghana, Chicago, Cuba, Spain, Italy, and Washington DC, but she now makes her home back where it all started in Memphis, Tennessee. The author attended Northwestern University where she graduated with her MFA. She released her first novel, Memphis, in 2022. Stringfellow is an author, poet, and former attorney.

Tara stringfellow author