Judy Blunt (born 1954) is an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

from

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

. Her most notable work to date is ''

Breaking Clean ''Breaking Clean'' is a memoir by Judy Blunt, published in 2002, after a decade in the writing. The book is about Blunt's life in the Rural area, countryside of eastern Montana, in the United States. In the book the author describes her childhood, ...

'', a collection of linked essays exploring her rural upbringing.

Biography

Blunt was raised on a cattle ranch in a remote area of

Phillips County, Montana Phillips County is a county in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,217. Its county seat is Malta. Before February 5, 1915, Phillips County was part of Blaine County, and before 1912 both were part of Choutea ...

, near Regina, south of

Malta, Montana Malta ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Phillips County, Montana, United States, located at the intersection of U.S. Routes 2 and 191. The population was 1,860 at the 2020 census. History After James Hill and his partners built t ...

. In 1986 she moved with her three small children to

Missoula Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...

to attend the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...

. She later turned the tales of her ranch life into her memoir, ''

'' (Knopf 2002), which won a

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Mrs. (American English) or Mrs (British English; standard E ...

, the PEN/Jerard Fund Award, Mountains and Plains Nonfiction Book Award, and Willa Cather Literary Award, and was one of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

' Notable Books. She received a Jacob K. Javits Graduate Fellowship and a Montana Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. Her essays and poems have appeared in such publications as ''The New York Times'', ''Big Sky Journal'' and ''Oprah Magazine''. Blunt received her M.F.A. from the University of Montana in 1994. She currently resides in

, where she is an associate professor at the

Bibliography

*''

'', Knopf: 2002 (hardcover),

References

External links

Powells.com interviewRandom House author bio
''

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Excerpt from
''

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U of M bio/press releaseA Conversation with Judy Blunt, author of Breaking CleanProfile at The Whiting Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blunt, Judy 1954 births Living people Writers from Missoula, Montana University of Montana alumni American memoirists Pacific University faculty University of Montana faculty People from Phillips County, Montana American women memoirists American women academics 21st-century American women