By Marion Roach Smith
READ UP, SISTERS! Publishing is not dead, it’s merely getting more fabulous. At least that’s how things look now that we’ve discovered Paris Press, the not-for-profit press that publishes “important work by women writers that has been overlooked by the literary and publishing worlds.” Though Paris Press was founded in 1995, it became known to us because of their new book, Sisters. A collection of marvelous authors writing on our favorite topic, this is the single book that all of us must read.

Divided into three sections entitled, “Don’t Tell Mother,” “Sister-Sister,” and “Having Our Say,” the book’s nearly 50 contributors include Simone de Beauvoir, the late great Wendy Wasserstein, Delia Ephron, Julia Glass, Margaret Atwood, Edwidge Danticat, Barbara Kingsolver, and pretty much everyone else you’d like to read on the topic of the sisterhood.

The opening of M.F.K. Fisher’s piece entitled “Not Enough,” would make a lovely TSP She Said, She Said entry: “Perhaps the main difference between Norah and me is that while we are friends (by now), she still thinks of me as her older sister, and I think of her mostly as a friend.”

What makes supporting Paris Press even more wonderful is that it sponsors readings and educational outreach programs for students and adults throughout the United States. These events take place in libraries, schools, community centers, museums, senior centers, bookstores, and at conferences. Recent celebrations honored Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her Solitude of Self, featuring readings from Stanton’s work and a discussion of her life. Paris Press releases one to two books every year, describing themselves as valuing “work that is daring in style and in its courage to speak truthfully about society, culture, history, and the human heart.”

You have to love them, and especially Sisters. You will. We promise.

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