New York Times Book Review
Writing Stories of the Past to Inspire You Today
FROM NEWSROOMS
TO NOVELS
Patricia Raybon is a Christy Award–winning Colorado author, essayist, and novelist who writes devotional content for Our Daily Bread Ministries and daring and exciting historical mysteries at the intersection of faith, race, and grace.
A newspaper journalist right out of the gate, Patricia grew up near Denver and turned to mystery and suspense fiction during the pandemic and hasn't looked back.
Her debut novel, All That Is Secret, won a Christy Award for first novel and was a Parade Magazine pick for "Mysteries We Love" (Fall 2021), CrimeReads' "Most Anticipated Books of 2021," and picked by NBA All-Star Steph Curry as a selection for his Literati book club.
The sequel, Double the Lies, won the 2024 Christianity Today Book Award for fiction. The third in the series, Truth Be Told, was a New York Times Book Review pick among "The Best Historical Fiction Novels to Read Right Now" (Thrillers) and protagonist Annalee Spain was named by the Times among "4 Great Fictional Detectives."
Her nonfiction writing includes My First White Friend, winner of a Christopher Award, and I Told the Mountain to Move, a Book of the Year finalist in the Christianity Today Book Awards.
With her upcoming stand-alone novel, The Sedalia Code, Patricia follows her maternal roots in North Carolina to a setting inspired by the real Palmore Memorial Institute, an historic Black boarding school in Guilford County, North Carolina, a short hour from Durham, her mother's hometown.
Patricia cut her writing teeth, however, at two big-city Colorado newsrooms—The Denver Post, where she was Sunday Contemporary Magazine editor, and at the Scripps Howard Rocky Mountain News, where she was a magazine feature writer, winning mutiple awards for newspaper feature writing at both papers.
Midcareer she taught print journalism for fifteen years, commuting many miles to the University of Colorado at Boulder to teach bright, hardworking graduate and undergraduate students, many of whom still consider her a colleague and friend.
Patricia's own journalism degrees are a B.A. from The Ohio State University and an M.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Her personal essays have been published in the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, USA Weekend, Guideposts, In Touch magazine, Christianity Today, the Washington Post, and for National Public Radio's Weekend Edition. She has also authored nonfiction books including memoirs and devotionals. Patricia was inducted into the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame in 2021.
A Colorado resident since age 2, Patricia and her family enjoy movies, popcorn, college hoops, and historical dramas and mysteries on Masterpiece on PBS. Join her Readers' Circle at patriciaraybon.com and get her free e-download, "The Busy Person's Guide to Hearing God."
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