Joanne Drayton is an acclaimed New Zealand author whose output is globally recognised. Her book Hudson & Halls: The Food of Love was the winner of the Royal Society Te Aparangi Award for General Non-Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in May 2019, and was a cover story for the NZ Listener in October 2018. Joanne’s The Search for Anne Perry was numbered in the top 10 non-fiction books on the New York Times BESTSELLER list. It was a finalist in the prestigious New Zealand Book Awards in August 2013, the subject of a 60 Minutes programme and a cover story for the NZ Listener. It is an 'important' and ‘beguiling’ read that has received excellent reviews. Both The Search for Anne Perry and Hudson & Halls: The Food of Love have been optioned for feature films.

Her critically acclaimed Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime (2008) was a Christmas pick of the Independent newspaper when it was released in the UK in 2009. Her other biographies of expatriate painters include Frances Hodgkins: A Private Viewing (Random House, 2005); Rhona Haszard: An Experimental Expatriate NZ Artist (CUP, 2002); and Edith Collier: Her Life and Work (CUP, 1999). She has curated exhibitions and publishes in art history, theory and biography. In 2007, she was awarded a National Library Fellowship, and in 2017 the prestigious Logan Fellowship at the Carey Institute in Upstate New York. Joanne is a research associate at the University of Auckland and an English teacher at Avondale College. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand, with her partner and three cats.