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Zell Visiting Writers Series readings and Q&As are free and open to the public, and will be offered both virtually (via Zoom) and in person (in UMMA's Stern Auditorium). Seats are offered on a first come, first served basis; please arrive early to secure a spot. Please contact asbates@umich.edu with any questions or accommodation needs.


Courtney Faye Taylor is the author of Concentrate (Graywolf Press, 2022). It is the winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize selected by Rachel Eliza Griffiths and was a finalist for the National Poetry Series.

Concentrate considers the life of Latasha Harlins, a fifteen-year-old Black girl killed by a Korean-American grocer named Soon Ja Du in 1991. Her murder, along with Rodney King’s beating, served as a catalyst for the 1992 L.A. Uprising. Through poems, visual collages, dialogues and essays, Concentrate reflects on the precariousness of Black girlhood and explores tension between Black and Korean-American communities, specifically how white supremacy is the instigator of that tension.

Courtney earned her B.A. from Agnes Scott College and her MFA from the University of Michigan Helen Zell Writers’ Program where she received the Hopwood Prize in Poetry. She is also the winner of the 92Y Discovery Prize and an Academy of American Poets Prize. The recipient of residencies and fellowships from Cave Canem and the Charlotte Street Foundation, Courtney’s writing can be found in Kenyon Review, The Nation, Ploughshares, Best New Poets, The New Republic and elsewhere.

As a visual artist, Courtney pairs photography and found materials with various poetic forms. Her visual poems can be found in Poetry Magazine and on display in exhibitions. For more, visit courtneyfayetaylor.com.


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. The building, event space, and restrooms are wheelchair accessible. Diaper changing tables are available in nearby restrooms. Gender-inclusive restrooms are available on the second floor of the Museum, accessible via the stairs, or in nearby Hatcher Graduate Library (Floors 3, 4, 5, and 6). The Hatcher Library also offers a reflection room (4th Floor South Stacks), and a lactation room (Room 13W, an anteroom to the basement women's staff restroom, or Room 108B, an anteroom of the first floor women's restroom). ASL interpreters and CART services at in-person events are available upon request; please email asbates@umich.edu at least two weeks prior to the event, whenever possible, to allow time to arrange services.

U-M employees with a U-M parking permit may use the Church Street Parking Structure (525 Church St., Ann Arbor) or the Thompson Parking Structure (500 Thompson St., Ann Arbor). There is limited metered street parking on State Street and South University Avenue. The Forest Avenue Public Parking Structure (650 South Forest Ave., Ann Arbor) is five blocks away, and the parking rate is $1.20 per hour. All of these options include parking spots for individuals with disabilities.