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Sisters! Bonded by Love and Laughter, a collection of humorous and heartwarming essays published by the University of Dayton's Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop, has won first place in the memoirs/life stories category of the 30th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.

The competition attracted 1,391 submissions. The $1,000 award, like the royalties from the book, will benefit the workshop’s endowment fund.

Sisters! features over 50 hilarious (and true) stories from New York Times bestselling authors, Saturday Night Live legends, humor writers, podcasters and other creatives, as well as winners of Nickie’s Prize for Humor Writing, named after a beloved sister and aspiring humor writer who died in 2018 soon after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

“Teri and I are honored and thrilled by this Writer's Digest award. The real credit goes to the 21 winners of Nickie's Prize and the dozens of other writers and humorists who contributed their funny and heartfelt stories to Sisters! Bonded by Love and Laughter. I am especially delighted that one of those contributors was my late sister Nickie, the inspiration for Sisters!,” said Marcia Stewart, a Bay Area writer who co-edited the book with Teri Rizvi, director of the workshop and co-founder of Nickie’s Prize.

Drue Wagner, of Austin, Texas, illustrated and designed the book, which features stories about sisters and close friends who are just like sisters.

This is the book’s third major recognition this year.

Sisters! was named one of the year’s best indie books in the category of relationships and emerged as a finalist in the gift book category in The Next Generation Indie Book Awards Program, the world's largest international awards program for independent publishers and self-published authors.

It was named a finalist in the humor/comedy/satire category in the 2022 International Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest. The competition covers books from all sections of the publishing industry — mainstream, independent and self-published.

Available in paperback and on Kindle, Sisters! can be purchased through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop and the University of Dayton's Bookstore. Bookstores and libraries may order it through IngramSpark. The Sisters! Book Club Guide can be downloaded here.

A number of the book’s contributors will sign copies at the Oct. 20-22 Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop.