Shuly Xochitl Cawood Books in Order

In this memoir, Shuly Xochitl Cawood reflects on loss, departure, and the memories that survive them. Recollections of Ohio, the American South, and Mexico explore a marriage's dissolution, mortality, faith, and the difficulty of letting go.

This collection offers fifty-two brief pieces of advice addressed to the author's younger self. Drawing on experience and hindsight, it combines humor with reflections on love, faith, health, and patience for readers facing life's uncertainties.

These stories follow people weighing whom to love, whom to release and what kind of lives to pursue. Desires for freedom, friendship, courage and second chances bring unexpected connections, alongside consequences that complicate each character’s search for fulfillment.

Cawood’s poems draw on Ohio, the American South and Mexico to explore migration and belonging. Family memories, shifting perspectives, love and loss reveal how place and social expectations shape identity while leaving room for change and self-discovery.