Judith Guest

Judith Guest (March 29, 1936-) grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and earned her B.A. in education from the University of Michigan. She is the great-niece of Edgar Guest, who was the Poet Laureate of Michigan when he was alive. Before deciding to write full time, Guest taught public school. She spends summers at a cabin in Michigan and winters in Minneapolis, continuing to write wherever she is.

Guest’s first book, Ordinary People, was made into a 1980 film starring Mary Tyler Moore, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The novel also won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. Her other novels include Killing Time in St. Cloud and The Tarnished Eye. Guest’s books are generally centered on family and loss, written with realism and grace.