Contact Me

Louisiana Book Festival

Date & Time

  • 2 November 2024

Location

  • Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

About the Event

The Louisiana Book Festival is a statewide celebration of readers, writers, and Southern literary culture, held each year at the Louisiana State Capitol and State Library in Baton Rouge. The event features author panels, book signings, workshops, and activities for all ages. This year, Shayla participated as one of the featured authors, joining a panel discussion and engaging with attendees throughout the festival.

Shayla C. Freeman, MD

Shayla is an Emergency Medicine physician based in Charleston, South Carolina, though “based” is a loose term. Since completing her residency in Atlanta, she has spent the past decade working as a travel doctor, moving from state to state and hospital to hospital. Her work has carried her from California to Nevada to Florida, and through countless emergency departments in between. Medicine has also taken her far beyond U.S. borders. She has practiced in the Caribbean, Central America, Asia, and Africa, combining her love of travel with her commitment to care for people wherever they are.

Originally from Greenville, South Carolina, Shayla studied Journalism and Media Production at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That degree took her to New York and Los Angeles, where she worked in scripted television and film production before pursuing medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. After intensive Emergency Medicine training at Emory University Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital, she became a board-certified physician and carried her skills out into the wider world.

Despite years spent mastering the science of medicine, Shayla’s love for the arts never dimmed. Now, she’s intentionally making room for it again, nurturing the creative part of her brain through writing. The Dr. Dawson trilogy is just the start. Storytelling allows her to explore humanity in a different way, but with the same sincerity and depth she brings to patient care. She’s always believed that sometimes a listening ear can heal as powerfully as a prescription, and she channels that same authenticity into the characters and worlds she creates. Her hope is to bring these stories not only to the page, but eventually to the screen.


When she’s not working, writing, or traveling for medicine, you can find Shayla watching any Tar Heel sport, spending time by the ocean (or at least within view of water), or boarding a plane to chip away at her never-ending list of places to see. A bright spot in the midst of 2020 was meeting her husband, Cleve. Together they share two stepsons, a mini husky, and a large, loving family, both given and chosen.