Shirley Hilton

Shirley Hilton is a writer whose poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in multiple online and print journals. Her nonfiction was nominated for Best of the Net. Three of her poems have been set to music by jazz musician Ryan Middagh. Her debut novel Bougainvillea, published by Legacy Book Press LLC in 2026, follows two women in Mexico whose lives are shaped by loss, betrayal, and an unlikely friendship. She has family on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border and often writes about living between two cultures. She lives in Iowa.