Shirley J. Brewer serves as poet-in-residence at Carver Center for the Arts & Technology in Baltimore, MD and has taught poetry workshops to writers of all ages. In addition to poetry, Shirley earned an MBA from the Maryland Bartending Academy. Her award-winning poems garnish Barrow Street, Comstock Review, Gargoyle, New Verse News, Plainsongs, Poetry East, Slant, among many other journals and anthologies. Shirley's poetry books include A Little Breast Music (2008, Passager Books), After Words (2013, Apprentice House), and Bistro in Another Realm (2017, Main Street Rag). She was a January 2020 guest on The Poet and The Poem with Grace Cavalieri, Maryland poet laureate, broadcast from the Library of Congress. A recent Pushcart nominee, Shirley received the first-ever Creativity Award from the University of Baltimore, where she earned her Master's degree in Creative Writing/Publishing Arts in 2005.