Shuly Cawood
Shuly Xóchitl Cawood is the author of A Small Thing to Want: stories (Press 53, 2020), The Going and Goodbye: a memoir (Platypus Press, 2017), and 52 Things I Wish I Could Have Told Myself When I Was 17 (Cimarron Books, 2018). Her debut poetry collection, Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning (Mercer University Press, 2021), won the 2019 Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry.
She has an MFA in fiction and creative nonfiction from Queens University and an MA in journalism from The Ohio State University.
Her creative writing has been published in places such as The New York Times, The Sun, and Brevity, among others.
Shuly teaches online writing workshops, for any level of writer.
Her website and blog can be found at www.shulycawood.com.
Works
A Small Thing to Want
This debut short story collection chronicles the choices people make about whom to love and whom to let go, their yearnings that either bind them or set them free, and the surprising ways love shows up, without reason or restraint. The characters in these stories long for freedom, truth, friendship, courage, and second chances, but each person will have to grapple with the consequences and costs of their desires.
Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning: poems
52 Things I Wish I Could Have Told Myself When I Was 17
The Going and Goodbye: a memoir
Awards and Recognition
- The Betty Gabehart Prize in Nonfiction
- 2021 Independent Publisher Bronze Medal for Short Fiction (A Small Thing to Want)
- Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry (2019)
Press and Media Mentions
- Book review of A Small Thing to Want (appeared in Knoxville News Sentinel)
- The Johnson City Press celebrates National Columnists Day by featuring its columnists.
- “This book is a must-have for readers who wish to garner the wisdom of a gifted writer who has lived it and learned a lot about life’s journey along the way.” —Dayton Daily News
- “Even though she would probably say that this one is not a memoir, it was certainly informed by her life experiences and to this reviewer’s way of thinking it is a memoir in the form of epigrams.” —Dayton Daily News
- The Going and Goodbye was selected as a Dayton Daily News 2017 favorite nonfiction book: "There were some lovely memoirs published, and Shuly Cawood penned my favorite one."
- "The Going and Goodbye is a gorgeously conceived expedition of a book. . . . If you read a lot of books then you probably know that feeling you can get when you encounter a writer who has written every single word with exquisite care and precision. . . . There are no wasted words here." ~ Yellow Springs News
Website
Location
TN
Author Contact
Category
Fiction & Literature, Poetry, Journalism, Essays