After a thirty-year career as a speech therapist, Shirley pursued her Creative Muse at the University of Baltimore, where she earned her Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing/Publishing Arts in 2005. She worked as an adjunct professor, teaching writing to undergraduates at UB for three semesters.

Currently, Shirley is teaching at the Baltimore Actors' Theatre Conservatory, a private school in Baltimore County, Maryland, for students K-12 who plan to pursue a career in theatre/music/dance.

Shirley’s poetry has appeared in The Comstock Review, HazMat Review, Calyx, Passager, Edison Literary Review, Arnazella, Scribble, and Welter, the University of Baltimore’s literary magazine.

Shirley was the resident poet at the 333 Coffee House in Annapolis, MD, from 2003 – 2005. She reads her poetry at various venues in the Baltimore-Annapolis corridor.

Her business, Poetic License, combines Shirley’s love of poetry and words with the empathic skills she honed as a speech therapist.

Ever the accessorizer, Shirley’s definition of shame is a bare wrist.