Shelly Cato lived much of her life in the Mississippi Delta and now lives and writes on Mulberry Fork in Walker County, Alabama. When she is on her paddleboard, she finds stillness on the river—and sometimes, peace. She often writes about invasive species, and, somehow, the species are also the methamphetamine addiction that has invaded her child’s life. Shelly Cato’s writing has appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, 2024; Iron Horse Literary Review (2023 NaPoMo Winner), Rattle, Poet Lore, and TriQuarterly Review.

PUBLICATIONS & LITERARY PRIZES:

·       “What I Am Asking with My Eyes,” SARKA, forthcoming, 2025

·    “A Stork Drowns in Comporta,” “Four Corners of the Heart,” Florida Review,          forthcoming, Spring 2025

·    “Cleome,” Ecobloomspaces:  Poetry at the Intersection of Social Identity and         Nature/Environment/Place, 2025 (reprint)

·       I don’t speak flower, Finalist, University of Akron Press, Fall, 2024

·       “Cleome,” West Trade Review, Winter 2024, Chosen for Audio release, Fall 2024

·       “In the Days of Childhood and Violence: One Morning Before School,” New Ohio         Review (online), Winter 2024, print edition, audio exclusive

·      “What Have We Forgotten Is It Love,” “If Pregnant and Seated on the Exit Row of a          United Jet Going Down: In-Flight Information Card,” Hayden’s Ferry Review, Spring          2024

·       “I Will Carry Her Home,” 2024 NaPoMo Winner, Iron Horse Literary Review, Spring         2024

·       “From the Horse’s Mouth, An Interview with Shelly Cato,” Iron Horse Literary                   Review, Spring 2024

·       “I Would Also Miss Wind,” Finalist, Red Wheelbarrow Prize judged by Ellen Bass,         published in Red Wheelbarrow, Winter 2023

·       “Maybe, Everything, Rewind, Reverse,” “Mega—,” “Snapchat at the Magical Arctic          Puffin Exhibit,” “Anti-Ode to a Marriage: ‘Why Antimatter Matters,’” and “Sonic         Madonna, After the Storm,” (poetry) A Southern Anthology of Writers: Volume X,         Alabama, Texas Review Press, Fall 2023

·       “I Don’t Speak Flower,” (poetry) TriQuarterly Review, Winter 2023

·       “Alligator Alley,” (poetry) Southeast Review, Issue 40.2 Fall 2022

·       “Anti-Ode to a Marriage: ‘Why Anti-Matter Matters’” (poetry), Washington Square         Review, Fall 2022

·       “Bird, I Love You, Bird,” (poetry) Semifinalist, Gearhart Prize, judge Rosebud Ben-         Oni, Southeast Review

·       “Telegram to My Wife Watching Planet Earth on Netflix,”

        “Telegram to My Husband the Morning After,” (poetry) Harpur Palate, 2022

·       “Snapchat at the Magical Arctic Puffin Exhibit,” (poetry) New Ohio Review, Issue         30, 2022

·       “Maybe, Everything, Rewind, Reverse” (poetry), Pushcart Prize nominee, 2021

·       “End to End to End,” (flash fiction) Westchester Review, 2021

·       “Sonic Madonna, After the Storm” (poetry) Poet Lore, 2021

·       “The River Eats,” Semifinalist, Terry Tempest Williams prize in Creative Nonfiction,         North American Review, May 2021

·       “Maybe, Everything, Rewind, Reverse,” (poetry) Nancy D. Hargrove Editor’s Prize in          Poetry, Jabberwock Review, Summer/Fall 2021

·       “The Only Movement I Want To See Right Now Is Kindness,” (flash fiction) Ponder         Review, Summer 2021

·       “When I Fell from the Sky,” (poetry) Cagibi, Issue 13, April 2021

·       “Bonefishing,” “God,” (poetry) The Blue Mountain Review, Winter 2021

·       “Mega—” (poetry), 2020 Rattle Poetry Prize Finalist, Rattle, Winter 2020

·       “Rainbow Catchin’ Train Wreck” (flash fiction) Little Patuxent Review, Summer         2019

·       “Money for Candy,” (poetry) Pointed Circle, Summer 2018

·       “Osage Orange at Summer Solstice,” (photo essay) Essays Daily, Summer 2018

·       “The Use of the World by Dan Albergotti,” Birmingham Poetry Review, Book         Review, 2014

·       “Secure the Shadow” by Claudia Emerson, Birmingham Poetry Review, Book         Review, 201