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St. Jude Radiothon 2024
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Kimberla Lawson Roby stood near the pulpit of a Baptist church in this Atlanta suburb one Saturday in late August, giving her testimony. She spoke of infidelities, mistresses, blackmail, out-of-wedlock children and extravagant spending. She did so as neither minister or worshiper, but rather as a novelist telling scores of rapt fans about her fictional characters.

One of those listeners asked Ms. Roby about her research process. “I didn’t have to do any research,” she replied. “I’ve been in church all my life.” With that, a knowing round of laughter swelled up from the pews, the closest thing the annual AJC Decatur Book Festival can produce to an “amen.”

Such moments of affirmation and shared experience have typified Ms. Roby’s literary life for the past 13 years, since she began writing a series of novels built around an African-American pastor, the Rev. Curtis Black. The series, now numbering 10 books, has sold well upward of one million copies, and several titles have made best-seller lists.

Besides being a commercial phenomenon, Ms. Roby’s books represent a theological and cultural one.

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article courtesy of BCNN1.com

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