Courtney Faye Taylor

Courtney Faye Taylor is an Assistant Professor of English in the Department of English at Agnes Scott College, where she teaches creative writing across poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on Black literature, humor, visual poetics, and experimental forms.

• BA, Agnes Scott College
• MFA, University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

Her research centers on the intersections of race, gender, memory, and violence, particularly through the lens of archival materials and hybrid literary forms. She explores how Black womanhood is rendered visible and vulnerable in American cultural narratives, often drawing from historical events such as the 1991 murder of Latasha Harlins.

Her acclaimed poetry collection Concentrate (2022) exemplifies these interests, blending poetry, micro-essays, and visual collage to interrogate systemic racism and the erasure of Black women’s lives. The work has been widely recognized for its formal innovation and political urgency.

Her publications and artistic projects reflect a strong commitment to social justice, interdisciplinary inquiry, and radical reimaginings of literary form. The themes across her work include racial solidarity, archival grief, and the transformative power of artistic resistance.

• T.S. Eliot Four Quartets Prize
• Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry
• Cave Canem Poetry Prize
• Finalist, NAACP Image Awards
• Finalist, Lambda Literary Awards
• Finalist, Heartland Booksellers Award
• Finalist, Society of Midland Authors Award
• 92Y Discovery Prize
• Academy of American Poets Prize
• MacDowell Fellowship in Fiction

Courtney Faye Taylor mentors emerging writers in creative writing programs and contributes to national conversations on racial justice in literature. Her work has been supported by prestigious fellowships and has appeared in leading literary journals such as Poetry Magazine and The Nation. While specific grant details are not listed, her MacDowell Fellowship indicates significant recognition and institutional support for her creative research.

As a multidisciplinary artist, she integrates visual art into her literary practice, with exhibitions at the Charlotte Street Foundation and the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art online. Her creative process bridges writing, curation, and visual storytelling, forming a cohesive artistic and scholarly identity centered on anti-erasure and solidarity.