Inspired by the prose and poetry of distinguished nature writers John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Sigurd Olsen, Loren Eiseley, Rachel Carson, and many others, Joseph writes about the natural beauty around us, connecting it to human relationships with nature. Born and raised in central Illinois, he moved West to attend the University of Idaho, studying to become a wildlife biologist and land manager. He has lived in Colorado, California, Idaho, Washington, Utah, and South Dakota over the past 60 years.
Joseph began his writing in high school as sports editor for the local weekly newspaper, The Tuscola Journal, and was co-editor of the school newspaper, Old Gold and Black Echoes. In the mid-1970s, he wrote a weekly column, anonymously, for the Del Norte (Colorado) Prospector. He continued to write essays and poetry for the next twenty years, and after retiring in 1997 from the US Forest Service, decided to organize his old writings as well as pen new ones. Training himself to rework his bureaucratic-career writing style, he expanded beyond essays and poetry to explore fiction.
In 2001, Joseph wrote the novel manuscript he titled Sands of Time, his first work in fiction, which came easily for him. Upon the advice of another writer, he set it aside for a one-or-two year fermenting period, which turned into fifteen years. During that time, he attended a short-story writers' workshop led by award-winning short story author Phil Deaver. Joseph spent several years writing short stories, many about his Forest Service experiences, all autobiographical fiction.
Taking the plunge into self-publishing, Joseph selected a group of essays and poems for his first book, Canyon Breezes. The next year, he put together another two dozen, most involved with his favorite subject—time—and published Zephyr of Time. All the while, he was polishing Sands of Time, which he submitted to hybrid publisher Page Publishing, and in March 2018, Sands of Time was published. During the year-long edit and publishing process with Page, Joseph polished a novella and a group of short stories, linked them thematically with the help of his new editor (wife Katherine) into a novel of short stories. Titled Tales of Ravens Nest, it was published in May 2018. Heeding the advice of many, including writers' groups, he joined Facebook as one aspect of marketing. Realizing he was gaining a new audience, Joseph began writing short essays about current adventures and discoveries, including essays and short stories posted on his Discovery Blog here on Colwellcedars.com. Many of those essays are included in Flight of the Raven, published in 2025.
Joseph focuses on what he sees and hears around him. “There is so much interesting detail in nature, I cannot spend ten minutes outside, whether on my own property or on a hike somewhere, that I don’t start composing an essay in my head. I want to capture that fascination and share with everyone else.” Living so many years in the slickrock canyon country of Utah and Colorado, he has become entranced by the concept of time, especially geologic time.
“I have lived in many places that are very old geologically—the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Colorado Rockies, and even my home state of Illinois—but the canyon country of the Colorado Plateau is to me the ultimate in geologic time. When we talk about millions, and even billions of years that this rock has been here, it humbles me about the minuscule time-frame we humans live our lives.”
Joseph is available for book signings or readings for any of his books. Combined with his experiences as a USFS forester, and summer jobs with state and national parks, he has a lot to share concerning the environment, his perceptions, and experiences.
