Last week, Paris Press celebrated the publication of SISTERS: AN ANTHOLOGY with the first in a series of Sister Celebrations that will take place around the country.

Writers Ana Maria Jomolca and Tsipi Keller braved the New England winter weather, traveling from New York City and West Palm Beach, to read “Twin Bed” and “Schlug da Kleine” at The Curtis House, in Paris Press’s hometown of Ashfield, MA.

Each of the pieces that were read from SISTERS, including an amazing passage by Joan Baez and poems by Joyce Armor and Marie Luise Kashnitz, elicited nods of understanding, and laughter from the enthusiastic audience of women and men — confirming that the experience of being a sister transcends the everyday ups and downs of other sorts of relationships, and effects our lives in deep and often permanent ways.

Many in the audience stayed to talk about their sisters with the writers and editors Jan Freeman and Emily Wojcik. Copies of SISTERS were available for sale and signing. And many of those books will be holiday gifts to daughters, aunts, friends, and — of course! — from one sister to another.

Special thanks to Ana Maria and Tsipi for making the trip in the midst of the first snowstorm of the year, and for sharing their stories in Ashfield, and on Amherst’s WFCR — which will be broadcast in the next week or two.

SISTERS:AN ANTHOLOGY includes stories, poems, and essays by well-known and emerging contributors such as Margaret Atwood, Jane Bowles, Catherine Chung, Lan Samantha Chang, Edwidge Danticat, Delia Ephron, Julia Glass, Jane Hirshfield, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Ana Maria Jomolca, Barbara Kingsolver, Audre Lorde, Grace Paley, Dorothy Parker, Muriel Rukeyser, Ali Smith, Alice Walker, C.D. Wright, Daisy Zamora, and many others!

Copies of SISTERS are available for sale at www.parispress.org (free shipping until New Years Day), and at your online and local bookseller.

Recent and forthcoming reviews:
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-sisters-an-anthology-edited/
www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6708412.html?q=sister+an+anthology

Check out RealSimple.com on December 18 and Jan Gardner’s book column in The Boston Globe on December 20.

Forthcoming events:

Ana Maria Jomolca will read from SISTERS tonight at Kettle of Fish in NYC at 7:00.

Tsipi Keller will read with Ana Maria at Books & Books in Coral Gables on January 7 at 6:30.

Helen Gallagher and others will gather for an interactive Sisters Celebration on January 16 at the Book Stall in Winnetka, IL.

If you’d like to host a Sister Celebration, give a shout out to Paris Press. All feedback about SISTERS is welcome here. Let us know what you think of the book. And share your own sisters stories!