I grew up in Northern New York, on the Canadian border. Through the carefree summers and wintry tundra, I evolved into a speech-and-debate nerd who read history, memorized statistics (sports, economics, et al) for fun, played any sport on offer, and discovered Kurt Vonnegut and so many other fiction writers. The arguing-and-systems half of that turned into a twenty-year career in strategy consulting and public policy, with stints at McKinsey & Company and the U.S. Department of Energy. I experienced and studied institutions from the inside—how decisions are made, the impact on livelihoods, and what they ask of the people who serve them. Away from the work, I read fiction widely and, for years, I was writing it too. The head I had spent decades filling with useless information I discovered, for a novelist, was super helpful.

Random memories and happenstance came hurdling back to influence the first novel I wrote in stolen hours before work, in hotel rooms, on bleachers wherever the youth-activity industrial complex sent me. That novel lives in a fireproof safe now. It demystified the writing process and taught me the discipline of showing up regardless of conditions. My second novel I took from first draft to the manuscript that I’m currently querying as a debut.

The stories I love best treat ordinary lives with close attention and some bite. I return again and again to the works of Marilynne Robinson, Elizabeth Strout, Alice McDermott, Jonathan Franzen, and George Saunders. I’m also drawn to novels with structural ambition, where the architecture and form is doing as much work as the prose. Some of my favorites and influences include A Visit from the Goon Squad, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Trust, The Rabbit Hutch, The Bee Sting.

I live in Washington, DC, with my family, where I work a day job in climate and energy policy. I am active in the local literary community through the DC Writers Salon, The Inner Loop, Friends of the DC Public Library, and the Writer's Center. I hold a B.A. from Plattsburgh College (SUNY) and a Master of Public Policy from George Mason University.

You can reach me at justinhuttonbadlam at gmail dot com.