The Writer’s Center presents a FREE virtual chat about the craft of nonfiction! We’re joined by Tamara Winfrey-Harris to talk about her latest book, Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters On Stepping Into Your Power. Tamara will be in conversation with Shanon Lee, activist, author, and instructor at The Writer’s Center.
RSVP below, and you’ll receive an email on or before March 26 with instructions for joining the chat via our video conferencing platform, Zoom. FREE and open to the public, all times Eastern. Limited space.
We encourage you to order a copy of the book from your local, independent bookseller or online from Bookshop.org.
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) and The Arlington Reader: Fourth Edition (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013).
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.
Shanon Lee is a contributor for Forbes and The Lily, published by The Washington Post. Her byline appears in publications including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Marie Claire, Playboy, Redbook, Women’s Health and Parents Magazine. Her opinion essays on misogyny and racism are widely circulated, and have been shared by notables including bestselling author J.K. Rowling, rap legend MC Lyte and political activist Kevin Powell. Shanon is an alumna of the 2019 Women’s Media Center Progressive Women’s Voices program and a mentor-editor for The OpEd Project. She was named to The Tempest’s 40 Women To Watch 2019 list for advancing the dialogue around gender-based violence. She is represented by Agnes Carlowicz of the Carol Mann Agency and is currently working on a book about misogynoir in pop culture.
About the Book
Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters On Stepping Into Your Power features the best of the Letters to Black Girls Project—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.