Judith's first book, Ordinary People, published in 1976, was made into a 1980 film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture.This novel and two others, Second Heaven (1982) and Errands (1997), are about adolescent children forced to deal with a crisis in their family. She also wrote the screenplay for the 1987 film Rachel River.

Judith Guest co-authored the mystery Killing Time in St. Cloud (1988) with fellow novelist Rebecca Hill. Guest's most recent book, The Tarnished Eye (2004), is loosely based on a true unsolved crime in her native Michigan.

Judith attended Detroit's Mumford High School in 1951; when the Guest family moved to Royal Oak, Judith transferred to Dondero High School - where she graduated in 1954. Guest then studied English and psychology at the University of Michigan, graduating with a BA in education. She taught at a public school for a number of years before making the decision to devote herself full time to completing a novel.

Judith is married to businessman Larry LaVercombe; former All-City basketball player at Detroit's Cooley High School and graduate of the University of Michigan. Judith and Larry have three sons and several grandchildren; all residing in Minnesota.