Natasha Anastasia Tarpley

Poet, memoirist, and children’s book author Natasha Anastasia Tarpley grew up in Chicago. She earned a BA at Harvard University and a JD at Northwestern University School of Law. In her writing, she often lingers in the details of daily life, celebrating identity and community. A former journalist, she is the author of the memoir Girl in the Mirror: Three Generations of Black Women in Motion (1998), and her fiction has been anthologized in Brown Sugar: A Collection of Erotic Black Fiction (2001), edited by Carol Taylor.

Tarpley’s children’s books include I Love My Haircut! (2020), illustrated by E.B. Lewis; The Harlem Charade (2017); The Princess and the Frog: Princess Tiana and the Royal Ball (2009), illustrated by James Finch; Bippity Bop Barbershop (2009), illustrated by E.B. Lewis; Destiny’s Gift (2002), illustrated by Adjoa Burrowes; and I Love My Hair! (1997), illustrated by E.B. Lewis and winner of a BlackBoard Children’s Book of the Year Award.

Her honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A selection of her papers related to three of her children’s books is held in the Children’s Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota. She lives in Chicago.