Shirley Hilton’s poetry, fiction and nonfiction has appeared in a variety of print and online journals and anthologies including Delmarva Review, Evening Street Review, Lyrical Iowa, Backchannels, Rattle Poetry and Contrary, among others. Much of her writing reflects memories and thoughts about what it means to have a foot firmly planted in two cultures.

Growing up in small-town Iowa, Hilton always longed for a bigger world. In college she discovered the magic of foreign language and its ability to show us different ways of viewing the world. She holds degrees in Spanish and English from The University of Iowa where she also studied German, French and Arabic. Her fascination with foreign language led to graduate studies in Bilingual Education, a decision that changed her life.

Hilton studied Latin-American culture and history at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, where in 1980 she served as Assistant to the Director of the summer program for American students studying abroad. That same year she married into a Mexican family and began to fully live the language and culture. While living in Mexico, she taught English at various levels from kindergarten to post-secondary students preparing for careers as interpreters and translators.

When Hilton returned to Iowa, she shifted her focus to the corporate world, working with global industries in translation, contract negotiation, and project management. Juggling a heavy workload, international travel, and the needs of family left her little time to write, but the spark was reignited one summer when she studied Beginning Novel with Elizabeth Strout at the Iowa Summer Writing Program. That work became the foundation of her debut novel BOUGAINVILLEA, a story set in the Colonia Coyoacan in Mexico City where she once lived.