(bell rings) (jazzy music begins) - [Tara] Hi, I'm Tara M. Stringfellow.

I'm the author of "Memphis," my debut novel.

(jazzy music continues) I really wanted to write a long epic poem, a sonnet, a love letter to Memphis, to my city, to the black women living in my city.

It's a black fairytale in a way.

I really wanted to write a black love story too.

So there's all that in there.

I think it is in itself black joy.

(groovy music) - [J.T.]

It's kind of unbelievable that this is your debut.

- [Tara] This is my first time writing fiction ever.

I'd never written a short story before.

- And you're a poet?

- [Tara] Yeah.

- You're a poet by trade, you're a lawyer by trade.

- Yes, I say poet by birth.

That's my birthright.

- [J.T.]

Okay.

- I just became an attorney 'cause I needed to eat food and pay for things.

- That's a very legitimate reason.

- Yeah, but going to law school did teach me how to write, I think, a lot better.

- Your dad shaped you as well?

- [Tara] Oh yeah.

- Can you tell us very quickly the story of when you were three years old and he pulled a book off the shelf that changed your life?

- It was a collection of greatest poems of all time, something like that.

And he started reading this poem.

I was three, I stopped him.

I said, "Start over."

Like what is, this is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard in my life.

And so he started over, and I stopped him again and I said, "I will be a poet.

This is for me."

And my dad pointed at the book.

He said, "Okay, well you have to write three times better because you're a black woman."

And I said, "I got that."

And so that's always been what I'm thinking of every single sentence I put down, like, is this a purely beautiful sentence?

- Tara, thank you so much for sharing your light with us today and sharing your gift.

We really appreciate it.

- Thank you so much.

This has been a delight.

- And thank you for watching "A Word on Words."

I'm J.T.

Ellison.

Keep reading.

(bell rings) - [Tara] I'm really appreciative for the fact that the Marine Corps let me grow up in Okinawa, Japan, in a tropical paradise.

I was a black little girl and I could just be that, just a black little, and no one made me feel less than.