Meet Kimberla Lawson Roby

KIMBERLA LAWSON ROBY

New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author, Speaker, Podcast Host, and Founder of Successful Women of Faith – The Sisterhood, Kimberla Lawson Roby, has published 29 books which include her faith-based, nonfiction title, THE WOMAN GOD CREATED YOU TO BE: Finding Success Through Faith—Spiritually, Personally, and Professionally, as well as her novels, such as SISTER FRIENDS FOREVER, SIN OF A WOMAN, A SINFUL CALLING, CHANGING FACES, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL, A CHRISTMAS PRAYER, THE PRODIGAL SON, THE PERFECT MARRIAGE, THE REVEREND’S WIFE, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PRAY FOR, SIN NO MORE, CASTING THE FIRST STONE, and her debut title, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, which was originally self-published through her own company, Lenox Press. She has sold more than 3 million copies of her books, and they have frequented numerous bestseller lists, including The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Essence, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, upscale, Black Christian News, AALBC.com, Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, The Dallas Morning News, The Austin Chronicle and many others.

Over the years, Kimberla has spoken to thousands of women at churches, conferences, workshops, luncheons, libraries, colleges, universities and bookstores. She shares her own personal journey straight from her heart and has a strong passion toward helping women become all whom God created them to be.

Kimberla is the 2013 NAACP Image Award Winner for Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction, the recipient of the 2017 SOAR Radio Trailblazer of Honor award, the 2017 Southwest Florida Reading Festival Distinguished Author award, the 2017 AAMBC Christian Fiction Author of the Year award and the 2014 AAMBC Female Author of the Year award, the 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013 African-American Literary Awards Show (New York, NY) Female Author of the Year award, the Blackboard Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2001 for CASTING THE FIRST STONE, and in 2001, Kimberla was inducted into the Rock Valley College Alumni Hall of Fame (Rockford, IL). Additionally, in 2020, she was named by USA Today as one of the 100 black novelists you should read; in February 2021, her first nonfiction book, The Woman God Created You to Be: Finding Success Through Faith—Spiritually, Personally, and Professionally, was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional, giving her four NAACP Image Award nominations in total, and in March 2024, she received the Rockford Area Arts Award for Literary Excellence from the Rockford Area Arts Council in Illinois. Kimberla also serves on two Rockford-area boards: the YWCA Northwestern Illinois Foundation Board and the Friends of the Coronado Foundation Board.

Kimberla’s books deal with very real issues, including the importance of sisterhood, women empowerment, Christian values, family values, moral values, marriage, infidelity, single motherhood, breast cancer, infertility, sibling rivalry, domestic violence, childhood sexual abuse, mental illness, the caregiving of a parent, problems within the church, racial and gender discrimination in the workplace, and drug and gambling addiction, to name a few. In addition, Kimberla’s books offer a message of redemption, forgiveness, and the realities of everyday life. 

She resides in Illinois with her husband, Will.

Recent Podcasts from Kimberla