Joseph Edward Shaw was born in Opotiki and is now living in Christchurch. He is a writer of poetry and short stories and has published poetry in "Leaving the Red Zone: Poems from the Canterbury Earthquakes", "broken lines/in charcoal", "a fine line: The Magazine of the Rōpū Toikupu o Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Society", and "Headland online journal". He writes: ‘A Native without land is like a turtle without a shell’ for the Native people of Turtle Island.
In 2025 Shaw was invited to include his poem "Kaiapoi Climate Karama" as one of 15 poems published in poster form for Blue Sky Dreaming in which '15 writers of all ages from across the city imagined how their neighbourhoods would change and how they might still be able to live there. This series of super-short pieces of writing are featured on posters throughout the city this Summer.' WORD Christchurch Festival & Events https://word hristhurh.co.nz/blue-sky-dreaming/.
Biographical sources
- Emails from Joseph Shaw April 2018, Sept 19, Oct 15, Nov 12, 2021, Oct 18, 2024, Jan 21, 2026.
Fiction
- Nightmare At Sea. HEADLAND: Literary Frontiers & Emerging Voices 22, October 14, 2024.
Poetry
- "The New Detroit." Leaving the Red Zone: Poems from the Canterbury Earthquakes. Eds. James Norcliffe and Joanna Preston. New Zealand: Clerestory Press, 2016.
- 4 Haiku. Broken Lines/ In Charcoal: An Anthology of Poetry from ten years of The Poetry Class. Eds. Joanna Preston and Karen Zelas. Pūkeko Publications, 2020. 34.
- "Pinching a Peach." Broken Lines/ In Charcoal: An Anthology of Poetry from ten years of The Poetry Class. Eds. Joanna Preston and Karen Zelas. Pūkeko Publications, 2020. 35-36.
- Lillian the Heron of Ōkarito. a fine line: The Magazine of Te Rōpū Toikupu o Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Society, Tauira/Student Issue. Winter 2024. 30.