Judith Kirscht

Judith Kirscht has written six novels of contemporary fiction as well as several short stories. “My stories are of ordinary people coping with the social upheavals of the last sixty years. I reject the rigid mind-numbing dogmas of both left and right; these stories are struggles of the human heart in conflict, which, for me, is what it truly means to be an American.”

Her novels have won recognition, beginning with the first, NOWHERE ELSE TO GO, which won a Hopwood Award from the University of Michigan, followed by HOME FIRES, which was a finalist for the Readers Favorite general fiction award and the Nancy Pearl Award given by the Pacific Northwest Writing Association for the best novel of 2014. HOME FIRES, HAWKINS LANE and THE CAMERA’S EYE all won “First in Category” awards for mainstream literature from Chanticleer Reviews, and THE CAMERA’S EYE was a finalist for the William Faulkner Wisdom Award and was among the 100 “Honored Books” by Shelf Unbound Indie Contest. END OF THE RACE, her latest, was a finalist for Chanticleer Review's 2020 Somerset Award for Contemporary/Literary fiction.

Born and raised in Chicago, Kirscht raised her family in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and taught writing at the Universities of Michigan and California, Santa Barbara before moving to the Northwest to devote herself to writing fiction. She now lives on Puget Sound, sharing her life with an old friend and three basenjis.