Born and raised in Ohio, Shuly Xóchitl Cawood moved to the South over two decades ago and has also lived and traveled in her mother's native country of Mexico. She writes about all of these places in her debut poetry collection, Trouble Can be so Beautiful at the Beginning, using their landscape and culture as a backdrop and a contrast to consider her identity and what it means to migrate from one location to another, how a place's values and societal expectations can shape who you are and who you become, and how you can be both a part of something and apart from it. The theme of migration also widens out to include the shift from one reality to another as well as from one perspective to another. Many of these poems interrogate memories, some that are inherited, some that are secret, some that are supposed, and find meaning in them, and at times, truth. Cawood uses autobiography and imagination in her poems to consider what it means to be young, to fall in and out of love, to break and become whole again, to face tragedy and fear and come out weaker or stronger, to struggle with power, and to let go of those we love not because of lack of feeling but because of earned wisdom. Trouble Can be so Beautiful at the Beginning tells stories about what it means to uncover truths about oneself, about the people we love, and about the people we come from.

Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning: Poems

Literature & Fiction

Shuly Xóchitl Cawood

Literary

Mercer University Press

If you've ever wanted to go back in time and talk to your younger self--to give advice, to say what you wish you had known then that you know now, to promise that even when it gets bad, it will get better--then this book is for you. If you are still young enough that most of life's lessons stretch ahead in front of you, then save yourself a heap of trouble and read what's on these pages."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"Shuly X chitl Cawood opens her new book light-heartedly: with good advice on bangs. It's not all fun and games though: she also counsels her younger self on more serious topics-- love and faith and health and remembering that patience is sometimes required." --Courtney LeBlanc, author of The Violence Within "Here are three more things to tell yourself at any age: 1. This book belongs in the hands of everyone turning 17--or even 57 You won't find a better birthday gift. 2. Even if you don't read it until you're 57, it will still bring you tears, solace, and wisdom. 3. Here is a writer to follow closely: the beauty, delight and humor that emanates from her work will stay with you for a very long time." --Carla Sameth, author of One Day on the Gold Line: A Memoir

52 Things I Wish I Could Have Told Myself When I Was 17

Religion & Spirituality

Cimarron Books

The Going and Goodbye is an examination of loss and leaving and the search for meaning in the memories that remain. Tracing a path through rural Ohio, the American south and small towns of Mexico, these stories breathe life into a marriage and its dissolution; find a voice that fears mortality then faces it; explores faith in the face of these losses; and ultimately reveals the power of love and letting go.

The Going and Goodbye: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Memoirs

Platypus Press

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Books by Shuly Xóchitl Cawood