Tamara Winfrey-Harris
Author Interview - Tamara Winfrey-Harris
Author of Dear Black Girl: Letters to Your Sisters on Stepping into Your Power
“Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters On Stepping Into Your Power features more than 30 feminist, anti-racist, body positive, LGBTQ+ positive, anti-respectability politics and pro-Black letters from Black women to Black girls wrapped in author Tamara Winfrey-Harris’ analysis. Dear Black Girl is a must-read antidote to the world’s ugly, unforgiving gaze—a balm for the wounds of anti-Black-girlness.”
Author Interview - Tamara Winfrey-Harris
Author I draw inspiration from: Audre Lorde - I love the way she beautifully renders the Black femme experience.
Author Interview - Tamara Winfrey-Harris
Favorite place to read a book: On my back porch, when the sun is out, the weather is mild and the vines have grown up over the pergola.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: I'm a sucker for a good mystery. I was so excited when I discovered Valerie Wilson Wesley's Tamara Hayle series, because Black femme detectives are hard to come by. Nothing better than one Tamara but TWO tuck in an elevator! We could become best friends and then solve all the crimes.
Author Interview - Tamara Winfrey-Harris
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: Writing a book has been a lifelong dream. I was a very bookish kid who liked to create "books" and "magazines" for fun.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Paperback and audiobook. I am usually reading two books at once. I keep a stack of paperbacks by my bed and a book on audio to listen to on commutes and while cleaning the kitchen.
The last book I read: The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
Author Interview - Tamara Winfrey-Harris
Pen & paper or computer: Computer. But I am old enough to have had to write high school reports and essays by hand before typing them. I realize with pen and paper I can better free write rather than edit while writing, which is an objectionable habit I have.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: "Best friends" is a tall order, but I would love to have tea and gossip with Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Author Interview - Tamara Winfrey-Harris
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: I've spent the majority of my career in PR and marketing so probably that.
Favorite decade in fashion history: 1940s/1950s - I enjoy a cinched waist, A-line skirt and sensible heel.
Place I’d most like to travel: At this moment? Anywhere not inside my house.
My signature drink: Frozen margaritas! Also, there is this distillery in Nashville, Indiana, called Hard Truth that makes the smoothest toasted coconut rum. It is delicious.
Favorite artist: Favorites questions are so hard! My loves can be mercurial. But I recently discovered this artist named Lavette Ballard. She transfers historical images of Black women into collages rendered on fences and reclaimed wood. I am really taken with her work.
Number one on my bucket list: Helping Black femmes get free
Find more from the author:
Twitter @whattamisaid
IG @tamarawinfreyharris
FB @tamarawinfreyharris
Author Bio: Tamara Winfrey-Harris is a writer who specializes in the ever-evolving space where current events, politics and pop culture intersect with race and gender. She says, “I want to tell the stories of Black women and girls, and deliver the truth to all those folks who got us twisted—tangled up in racist and sexist lies. I want my writing to advocate for my sisters. We are better than alright. We are amazing.”
Well-versed on a range of topics, including Beyoncé’s feminism; Rachel Dolezal’s white privilege; and the Black church and female sexuality, Tamara has been published in media outlets, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine and The Los Angeles Times. And she has been called to share her analysis on media outlets, including NPR’s “Weekend Edition” and Janet Mock’s “So Popular” on MSNBC.com, and on university campuses nationwide.
Tamara’s first book, The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America was published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers in 2015 and called “a myth-busting portrait of Black women in America” by The Washington Post. The book won the Phillis Wheatley Award, IndieFab Award, Independent Publishers Living Now Award and the IPPY Award. Her sophomore effort Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters On Stepping Into Your Power is forthcoming in March 2021 from Berrett-Koehler Publishers, and available for pre-order.
Her essays also appear in The Lemonade Reader: Beyonce, Black Feminism and Spirituality (Routledge, 2019); The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery (Wayne State University Press, 2018); Black in the Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest (Black Belt Publishing, 2020); and other books.
Tamara is also the co-founder of Centering Sisters, LLC, an organization that unapologetically addresses the needs and issues of Black women, girls, and femmes.
In 2020, Tamara completed yoga teacher training and is certified RYT 200 through the Yoga Alliance. She says, “Yoga is not exercise; it is healing and liberation and beauty. I want to share that with people who are chronically disregarded and oppressed, wherever they are–at home, at school, in community centers. I especially want to do yoga with my sisters, because they deserve this peace.”
Tamara is a native of Gary, IN, and a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Inc. She graduated with a BA degree from the Greenlee School of Journalism at Iowa State University.
