--- title: Katrina Bills Wrote an Award-Winning Daily Prayer Devotional That Doubles as a Spiritual Growth Manual description: The Chicago-born author and publisher built Prayed Up around real seasons of loss, love, and faith, then watched it win a NYC Big Book Award. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-04-10T10:31:12.024Z updated: 2026-06-29T08:43:54.867Z canonical: https://richwoman.co/article/katrina-bills-prayed-up-daily-prayer-devotional image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/katrina-bills-prayed-up.webp categories: Self-Development content_type: Spotlight region: Tennessee publication: Rich Books about: - type: Person name: Katrina Bills description: Katrina Bills is a Chicago-born, Memphis-based author, publisher, poet, and nominated screenwriter. She is the CEO and Founder of KB Writes Publishing Company. Her daily prayer devotional Prayed Up won the Distinguished Favorite Award at the NYC Big Book Awards. She also runs the Winners Reading Program and the Katrina Bills National Bookclub. url: https://kbwrite.com/ jobTitle: CEO and Founder worksFor: KB Writes Publishing Company sameAs: - https://www.instagram.com/kbwritespublishing/ - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10005540/ - https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0CY8K6TZX --- ### Book: Prayed Up By Katrina Bills A daily devotional guide that combines prayers and scripture to strengthen faith and spiritual growth. Each entry pairs a specific prayer with a relevant scripture passage, offering practical guidance for navigating grief, uncertainty, gratitude, and other seasons of life through consistent spiritual practice and biblical reflection. [Amazon](https://amzn.to/4c7mvNC) Katrina Bills has spent most of her life leaning on prayer. Through grief, through seasons that felt like they would not end, through the kind of quiet joy that arrives only after long stretches of difficulty. She prayed through all of it. And over time, she began writing those prayers down. The result is "Prayed Up," a daily prayer devotional that pairs original prayers with scripture passages, each one tied to a specific life situation. It is not a book of theology or abstract reflection. It is a practical guide for people who want to build a consistent spiritual practice but need something more grounded than a verse-of-the-day app. The book won the Distinguished Favorite Award in the Christian category at the New York City Big Book Awards, placing Bills alongside established names in faith publishing. Bills is the CEO and Founder of KB Writes Publishing Company, a Memphis-based independent publisher she built from the ground up. She is also an award-winning poet, a nominated screenwriter, and an actress. But "Prayed Up" is the project she describes as closest to who she is. It grew directly out of her own Christian journey, and every page reflects that. ## From Chicago to Memphis: The Journey Behind the Book Bills was born and raised in Chicago. Her faith was shaped early, and prayer became the anchor she returned to through every major chapter of her life. When she moved to Memphis, she carried that practice with her, and it deepened through seasons of personal loss, transition, and rebuilding. Those experiences are the backbone of "Prayed Up." Rather than writing a devotional that moves through the calendar with generic daily reflections, Bills structured the book around the [moments that actually test a person's faith](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/finding-grace-in-grief-a-woman-writes-through-loss-faith-and-healing). A sudden loss. A relationship falling apart. A financial crisis that keeps you up at night. A period of waiting where nothing seems to move forward. But also the good seasons: unexpected blessings, answered prayers, moments of deep gratitude that deserve their own space. For each of these situations, she wrote a specific prayer and paired it with a scripture passage chosen to speak directly to that experience. The pairing is deliberate. Bills treats daily prayer and scripture not as separate habits but as a single practice, one reinforcing the other. The prayer gives the reader language for what they are going through. The scripture offers the foundation that language stands on. ## How Prayed Up Works as a Christian Daily Devotional The structure of "Prayed Up" is designed for consistency. Each entry is short enough to fit into a morning routine or a quiet moment before bed, but substantial enough to sit with throughout the day. Bills wanted readers to be able to open the book, find a prayer that matched where they were emotionally or spiritually, and feel seen. That is what separates "Prayed Up" from many other [spiritual growth books](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/spiritual-books-using-biblical-wisdom-and-modern-metaphors-resonate-with-readers-seeking-prac) on the market. It does not assume the reader is already in a good place. Some entries are written for people in crisis. Others are written for people navigating the slow, unglamorous work of rebuilding. And others still are for people who are doing well and want to express that through prayer rather than letting gratitude pass unmarked. The devotional also functions as a reference guide. Readers do not have to move through it in order. They can return to specific entries when a particular season resurfaces, when a friend is going through something similar, or when they simply need a prayer that speaks to a feeling they cannot quite articulate on their own. This dual purpose, both a daily reading and a resource to return to, is part of what caught the attention of the NYC Big Book Awards judges. The Distinguished Favorite Award in the Christian category was a significant milestone for an independent publisher operating through her own company, without the backing of a major religious publishing house. ### See More - [Kenneth Carnesi on Three Awards, Unpublished Manuscripts and the Book That Goes Back to Rock Bottom](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/kenneth-carnesi-awards-all-hope-abandon) "Prayed Up" is available globally through Amazon in multiple languages, as well as through Barnes & Noble and Indigo. ## Building KB Writes Publishing Company Bills founded KB Writes Publishing Company in 2017 with a mission centred on two things: literacy advocacy and personal growth. The company publishes across a wide range of genres, including [fiction, poetry, memoir, young adult, drama, and religious writing](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/faith-at-work-five-authors-with-real-world-lessons-for-men-seeking-purpose-and-power). It operates as both a press and a magazine, and its catalogue reflects Bills' belief that storytelling in all its forms can change how people see themselves and their possibilities. Beyond publishing, Bills created the Winners Reading Program, a literacy initiative that serves communities across the Mid South. The programme extends open invitations to families and schools in the surrounding area, with the goal of making books and reading more accessible to children and adults who might not otherwise have regular access to them. She also founded the Katrina Bills National Bookclub, which partners with public school systems across the United States. The bookclub is not a casual reading group. It is a structured programme designed to get books into the hands of students and build reading habits that last beyond the classroom. Her affiliations speak to the breadth of her work. Bills is connected to the Writers Guild, the International Poets Society, ASCAP, the National Publishers Association, and the National Association of Professional Women, among others. She has been recognised as an award-winning poet approved for advanced poetic studies, and her writing spans genres in a way that few independent publishers attempt. ## From the Page to the Screen Bills' creative work does not stop at books. She has acting credits to her name, including a role in "Io Sono Donna - I AM WOMAN." Her short story script "Anna Mae Johnson Story" has been nominated at the NYC Script Awards, a recognition that places her screenwriting alongside her published work as a serious creative pursuit rather than a side project. She is currently working on her next book, "Rainey Days," which is set for upcoming release. While details on the new title are still emerging, it marks another step in Bills' pattern of writing from personal experience and turning it into something readers can hold onto. Bills is engaged to Commander Brooks James Rainey of the United States Navy. ## What Prayed Up Offers Readers For readers who have tried daily devotionals before and found them too vague or too disconnected from real life, "Prayed Up" offers something different. The prayers are specific. The scripture pairings are intentional. And the book does not pretend that faith is always easy or always comfortable. Bills wrote it for people who are in the middle of something, whether that something is grief, healing, uncertainty, or the quiet work of growing closer to God on an ordinary Tuesday. The book meets readers where they are, not where a devotional thinks they should be. That honesty is what earned it an award, and it is what keeps readers returning to it long after their first read. **About Katrina Bills** CEO and Founder, KB Writes Publishing Company Katrina Bills is a Chicago-born, Memphis-based author, publisher, poet, and nominated screenwriter. She is the CEO and Founder of KB Writes Publishing Company. Her daily prayer devotional Prayed Up won the Distinguished Favorite Award at the NYC Big Book Awards. She also runs the Winners Reading Program and the Katrina Bills National Bookclub. [Website](https://kbwrite.com/) ## FAQ **Q: How can prayer strengthen your faith?** Prayer builds faith by creating a regular point of connection with God, especially during periods of doubt or difficulty. When someone prays consistently, they develop a habit of bringing their concerns, fears, and gratitude into a spiritual context rather than carrying them alone. Over time, that habit creates a record of answered prayers and moments of clarity that reinforce belief. Pairing prayer with scripture deepens the effect, because the Bible provides language and promises that give structure to what can otherwise feel like an uncertain conversation. **Q: How do you start a daily prayer routine?** Start small and attach it to something you already do. Pray for five minutes after your morning coffee, or read a single scripture passage before bed and respond to it in prayer. The key is consistency, not length. Many people fail at daily prayer because they try to sustain 30-minute sessions from day one. A devotional book can help by providing a ready-made structure, so you do not have to decide what to pray about each day. The habit builds naturally once the barrier to starting is low enough. **Q: What is a good devotional for grief?** The most helpful devotionals for grief are ones that acknowledge the weight of loss directly rather than rushing toward comfort. Generic encouragement can feel hollow when someone is in real pain. Look for a devotional that includes prayers written specifically for mourning, transition, and the long process of rebuilding after loss. Scripture passages from Psalms, Lamentations, and the Gospels tend to speak most honestly to grief. A good devotional will sit with the reader in their pain before pointing toward hope. **Q: How do you grow spiritually on a daily basis?** Spiritual growth happens through repeated small practices, not single breakthroughs. Reading scripture daily, even a few verses, keeps biblical teaching active in your thinking. Prayer adds a conversational layer where you process what you have read and apply it to your own life. Journaling can help you notice patterns over time. The most important factor is showing up consistently. Growth is rarely dramatic on any given day, but over weeks and months, the cumulative effect of daily spiritual practice changes how you respond to difficulty, how you treat others, and how clearly you hear God's direction.