Photo by Rick Olivier
Johnette Downing (born Johnette Renee Downing, January 19, 1962, Marrero, Louisiana, U.S.A.), American musician, singer, and composer of music for young people, author, illustrator, and haiku poet. She has recorded 12 albums of music and written 30 books and was the recipient of the 2017 Louisiana Writer Award. Downing’s haiku, sequences, and haibun have appeared in major journals, especially Bottle Rockets and Modern Haiku, and a major book, Singing Waters: A Selection of Haiku, Senryu, and Haibun, was published in 2022. Downing was cofounder (with David G. Lanoue; 2002) of the New Orleans Haiku Society. She resides in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Newburyport, Massachusetts.
Note: This is an abstract of a longer biographical article to come.