Shelley Burne-Field (Samoa, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Rarua, Pākehā) is a kaituhituhi from Te Matau-a-Maui Hawke's Bay. She writes articles and creative non-fiction as well as fiction of all sorts, including short stories. This is her second children's story. It follows the epic middle-grade adventure story, Brave Kahu and the Pōrangi Magpie, published in 2024. She is an alumni of the Master of Creative Writing from Auckland University 2020 and also Te Papa Tupu mentoring programme. Her story 'Speaking in Tongues' was the only New Zealand Finalist in the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her work is now in print in anthologies around the world, and has appeared in Newsroom and on RNZ. Her story 'Pinching out Dahlias' is the most read short story published in Reading Room. Shelley is a proud member of the NZSA.