LATOYA (TOY) LAWSON

Born in Chicago and employed as a caregiver from the age of nineteen, LaToya Lawson has spent most of her life by the bedsides of the sick and infirm. By just twenty-three, she had founded Mississippi Professional Nursing Care, LLC, which would go on to inspire her debut novel, Ma’Sitter. An intensely personal work, the book was born of her firsthand experience with racism, faith, friendship, and life as a single-mother in a world shaped by privilege. Her characters are strong, single-minded women, determined to build a better life for their children. Lawson’s stories are at times filled with pain but are ultimately uplifting, buoyed by the triumph and redemption of her characters. Soul food When LaToya isn’t writing, she can be found bent over her oven, checking her latest baked three-layer Red Velvet cake, or cooking a soul food feast and soaring down the highway on her motorcycle.