Judy Goldman’s second novel, Early Leaving, was published in hardcover by William Morrow in October 2004 and in paperback by Harper Perennial in September 2005. Her first novel, The Slow Way Back, was published by William Morrow and released in paperback by Harper Perennial. It won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, the Mary Ruffin Poole Award for Best First Work of Fiction, and was a finalist for the Southeast Booksellers Association’s Best Novel of 2000.

She is also the author of two books of poetry, Holding Back Winter and Wanting To Know the End, winner of the Gerald Cable Poetry Award, a national prize, and the three top poetry prizes in North Carolina. Her book reviews have appeared in The Washington Post and The Charlotte Observer, and she is a commentator on public radio. Her work has been published in many literary journals, such as Kenyon Review, Southern Review, Ohio Review, Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah, Prairie Schooner, and in numerous anthologies. She teaches at writers’ conferences throughout the country. Recently, she received the Fortner Writer and Community Award for "outstanding generosity to other writers and the larger community."

Born and raised in Rock Hill, SC, she lives in Charlotte, NC. She and her husband have two married children and three granddaughters.