Kimberla Lawson Roby

Education

In 1982, Kimberla graduated a year early as a junior from Auburn Senior High School’s Academy Program in Rockford Illinois.

In 1987, she received an Associate Degree in Business from Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois.

In 1993, she received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with academic distinction status from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, WI.

Career

Born Kimberla Marie Lawson to Lucious “L.B.” Lawson and Arletha Tennin Stapleton, Roby held various jobs in Rockford, both in the corporate world and in city and state government. At the age of 30, she decided to write her first novel, Behind Closed Doors, which took her seven months to complete. She then attempted to find a literary agent and publisher.

In June 1996, with money her husband borrowed from his 401K account and a small loan from their credit union, she founded her company, Lenox Press and published Behind Closed Doors. First at independent African-American bookstores nationwide and ultimately at major chain bookstores, such as Barnes & Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks and Books-A-Million. Within her first two months of official sales, a literary agent agreed to represent her, and her second book was sold to Kensington Publishing in New York. Her first was then picked up by Black Classic Press in Baltimore, MD.

In 1998, Kimberla signed with a new literary agent, Elaine Koster of the Elaine Koster Literary Agency, who represented Kimberla until Elaine’s passing in August 2010. In addition to Kensington Publishing, Kimberla has also published books with HarperCollins Publishers (William Morrow and Avon Imprints), and she is currently published with Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group.

She continues to write novels and serve as a keynote speaker at many literary events.

Kimberla resides in Illinois with her husband, Will.

Awards and accomplishments

In February 2013, Kimberla received the 2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Work – Fiction for her novel, The Reverend's Wife. She was nominated again in 2014 for her novel, The Prodigal Son. Her first novel was nominated for Blackboard’s 1998 and 1999 Fiction Book of the Year Award, and she received the Blackboard Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2001 at Book Expo America for Casting The First Stone. She is also the 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013 recipient of the Author of the Year – Female award presented by the African-American Literary Award Show in New York, the recipient of the 1998 First-Time Author Award from Chicago’s Black History Month Book Fair and Conference, and her fifth novel, A Taste Of Reality, was a 2004 finalist for the Atlanta Choice Awards sponsored by the Atlanta Daily World. Additionally, Too Much Of A Good Thing received a 2004 Patron Choice Award from the Central Mississippi Regional Library System, and in 2001, Kimberla was inducted into the Rock Valley College (Rockford, IL) Alumni Hall of Fame.