Los Angeles-born Judith Berlowitz’s career as a novelist has emerged relatively late in her life, after following a more mundane track as a professor of Spanish and Cultural Studies (Mills College, Holy Names University, Stanford University, more…), multilingual tour guide, medical translator-interpreter, ethnomusicologist, oral historian, classical guitarist, oboist and singer (Stanford Early Music Singers, Oakland Symphony Chorus, San Francisco Bach Choir) and freelance genealogist (volunteer curator at Geni.com). As a self-styled recovering academic, her previous publications are mainly in the field of ethnomusicology, oral history, and Jewish Studies, some as Judith H. Mauleón.

Judith was inspired to write Home So Far Away after discovering Gestapo and Soviet documents about a forgotten distant relative from Germany who participated in the Spanish Civil War. Her Spanish translation of the book appeared in Spain in 2021 and excerpts have appeared there in left-political and Jewish publications. Her three daughters are also super-achievers. Judith is married to writer Cy Berlowitz and they live in the Bernal Heights district of San Francisco.