Taylor Byas is a Black poet and essayist. Originally from Chicago, She moved to Alabama for six years, where she received both her Bachelor’s degree in English and her Master’s degree in English (Creative Writing concentration) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Her poetry has appeared in New Ohio Review, The Journal, storySouth, Glass Poetry, and others. She has poems forthcoming in Iron Horse Literary Review, Borderlands Texas Poetry Review, Hobart, Pidgeonholes, and others. Her prose appears or is forthcoming in Another Chicago Magazine, Empty Mirror, Jellyfish Review, and others. She has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, and Best New Poets 2020.

Taylor currently lives in Cincinnati, where she is a second year PhD student and Albert C. Yates Scholar at the University of Cincinnati. She is pursuing her degree in Creative Writing (Poetry). She is a reader for both The Rumpus and The Cincinnati Review, and the Poetry Editor for FlyPaper Lit. 

She is represented by Rena Rossner at The Deborah Harris Agency.