Born Judy Ann Heinemann on 16 December 1958 in Zvishavane, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), she received a Master of Arts (English) degree from the University of South Africa.
Croome was married to South African tax law scholar, Advocate of the High Court of South Africa and tax author, the late Dr Beric John Croome, who died in April 2019 after a long illness.
[2] Croome's short stories and poetry have been published in The Huffington Post,[3] the University of Witwatersrand's School of Literature, Language and Media's Itch Magazine[4] and in various print anthologies released by small presses in the United States[5][6][7] and South Africa[8][9][10] Croome has also appeared on South African national television on the South African Broadcasting Corporation's Channel 2 Morning Live show[11] and on South African national radio on the SAFM Sunday Literature programme.
[33] In 2021 and 2016, Croome was the external judge of the poetry section in the Writers2000(South Africa)(1985) annual writing competition.
[34] In 2011, Croome's "The Place of the Doves" was shortlisted for the African Flash Fiction writing award.