Tara M. Stringfellow’s debut novel, , made a splash with high praise from , the , and other venues. and placed her among some of America’s finest prose writers, stating, “Recommended for anyone who appreciates Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, or Gloria Naylor.
” , just out, is Stringfellow’s first collection foray into poetry (though not as a genre—she’s the first to earn an MFA in poetry *and* prose from Northwestern University). While much of the collection is a love letter to Memphis, Blackness, and faith, Stringfellow’s poems frequently consider the different shapes violence takes against Black Americans in general, but particularly Black women: men (physically and/or through heartbreak), white people (physically and/or socially). Black women’s greatest resource, Stringfellow illustrates throughout these poems, are each other.
The women in these poems provide physical protection, kinship, a weeping partner, or simply laugh and reminisce. The griefs and celebrations of divorce, from a white man no less, gets much attention—and the women who support her through it. The title of the collection comes from one of the poem’s lines: “God can stay asleep / these women in my life are magic enuff.
” Many of the poems are, aptly, dedicated to different Black women writers who are Stringfellow’s literary forbears (Sonia Sanchez in particular). They are just as often dedicated to Black people killed by police (Tyre Nichols, Laquan McDonald). Stringfellow writes a.
