Alter writes primarily about the history and literature of Texas and the American West, especially the experiences of women in the nineteenth century.

Over fifty of her young adult non-fiction books have been published for school libraries by Franklin Watts and Scholastic.

Judy Alter is a past president of Western Writers of America and former secretary of the Texas Institute of Letters.

In 2016 Judy was a finalist for the Will Rogers Medallion Award for her cookbook, Texas Is Chili Country.

[8] She is a member of Sisters in Crime and its Guppies subgroup, the Texas Institute of Letters, and Women Writing the West.