Illustrious photographs of African American sisters by Pulitzer Prize-nominated photographer Michelle Agins and essays from Julia Chance.

A sister is so many things-someone you consider family, your best friend, and the woman with whom you share your times of love, hope, or heartbreak-the women in Sisterfriends are all those, and more. A collage of impressions of African American women both well-known and unknown, the essays in Sisterfriends tell beautiful stories of sisters, whether related by blood or bonded by fate. Crossing economic, social, and geographic boundaries, these sisters support each other emotionally, financially, and physically.

The stories they tell are uplifting, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking. From singer Mary J. Blige and her sister LaTonya, who moved her entire family into Mary’s mansion to manage her career, to Andrea and Lorelei Williams, who grew up in a one-room studio in Harlem and often didn’t have food or electricity, to Bethann Hardison and her friend Marta Vargas, who share the bond of sisterhood as friends-Sisterfriends mines the whole experience in the words of its women. Iyanla Vanzant, Gayle King, and bell hooks contribute their own sister stories that compel, provoke, and ultimately illuminate the fascinating relationship of women who call themselves sister, making this a beautiful gift book for that special woman in your life.