Literature is uniquely suited to express the interior lives of characters, whereas film and television are visual mediums. With writers more in demand than ever in Hollywood, this craft lecture will explore how literary writers can put themselves in a position to do both.


Jenny Zhang’s debut story collection, Sour Heart, centers on immigrants who have traded their endangered lives as artists in China and Taiwan for the constant struggle of life at the poverty line in 1990s New York City. Zhang is currently adapting Sour Heart into a feature-length film for A24.

From the young woman coming to terms with her grandmother’s role in the Cultural Revolution to the daughter struggling to understand where her family ends and she begins, to the girl discovering the power of her body to inspire and destroy, Sour Heart's seven stories illuminate the complex and messy inner lives of girls struggling to define themselves.

Jenny Zhang is also the author of the poetry collection, Dear Jenny, We Are All Find. Her second collection of poetry, My Baby First Birthday, is forthcoming from Tin House. She is the recipient of the Pen/Bingham Award for Debut Fiction and the LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.


The Zell Visiting Writers Series brings outstanding writers to campus each semester. The Series is made possible through a generous gift from U-M alumna Helen Zell (BA ’64, LLDHon ’13). For more information, please visit the Zell Visiting Writers Program webpage: https://lsa.umich.edu/writers

For any questions about the event or to share accommodation needs, please email asbates@umich.edu-- we are eager to help ensure that this event is inclusive to you. Copies of the readings and live, high quality auto-captions/transcriptions will be provided at all events.