Photograph by Fern Eisner

Toby Devens was born in Brooklyn, New York and by age five was performing as a singer and actress on stage and television.  She "retired" at thirteen, to resume a happy, conventional childhood.  By age nine, she'd written her first book, a collection of original fairy tales illustrated in crayon.

She received a B.A. from The American University in Washington, D.C. and an M.A. from New York University, both in English Literature.  As New York editor for Where magazine, she reviewed restaurants and opening nights of supper clubs, as well as Broadway shows. She was a writer and senior editor at Harcourt Brace publications when she met her future husband interviewing him at a medical conference.

Toby Devens' first book, Mercy Lord, My Husband's in the Kitchen, was published by Doubleday in hardcover and Avon in soft cover. It received glowing reviews from People magazine, the West Coast Review of Books, the New York Daily News, and other newspapers around the country. Her poetry, short fiction and articles have appeared in such publications as Reader's Digest, Family Circle, McCall's and Parents magazine, among many others.  

Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President for an international network of transplant banks, supervising public relations and media outreach for more than fifty transplant banks across the U.S. and abroad.  Traveling extensively, she had a front row seat to cutting edge biotechnology and medical advances around the globe, knowledge she used in writing My Favorite Midlife Crisis (Yet).  Her articles related to medical issues have appeared in numerous professional publications and scientific journals.

The inspiration for My Favorite Mid-Life Crisis (Yet) emerged from her most recent sojourn into singlehood.  She currently lives in a Maryland suburb halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.