The Publications Unit in the Department of English will host a fiction reading with Haitian American author Micki Berthelot Morency to celebrate her debut novel, The Island Sisters (BHC Press, 2023). The reading will be followed by a book signing and conversation about the novel’s themes with Dr. Susan Kalter from the Department of English.
The event will take place on Monday, September 18, from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Publications Unit in Williams Hall Annex. This event is free and open to the public. Copies of the book are available for preorder through the local, independent bookstore Bobzbay Books, and they can be picked up before the event at the store in Downtown Bloomington or at the event on September 18.
About The Island Sisters
The Island Sisters is an empowering narrative told from alternating perspectives of four women from Haiti, St. Thomas, and Guam who meet in a college counseling session and learn they have a shared history of abuse. Micki Berthelot Morency has crafted four remarkable and hard-to-forget women whose fates are bound together by culture, by history, and most importantly, by a deep, irrevocable friendship. Heartfelt and deeply moving, The Island Sisters is an important story about hope and determination.
“Emotional, thought-provoking, and poignant. The Island Sisters is an inspiring tribute to friendship, women’s strength to overcome, and the unfurling of possibilities when we start believing we deserve better.”
—Lainey Cameron, award-winning author of The Exit Strategy and host of The Best of Women’s Fiction podcast
About the author
Micki Berthelot Morency emigrated to the U.S. from Haiti in the 1970s. A graduate of Northeastern University, she worked in finance before finding her calling as an advocate for women and children. As an author, she has published short stories and won several awards including the Writer’s Digest contest. Morency’s debut novel, The Island Sisters, was a finalist in the Women’s Fiction Writers Association Rising Star contest.
The event is sponsored by Harold K. Sage Foundation; the Illinois State University Foundation Fund; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the Publications Unit in the Department of English.
For more purchase options, visit the publisher BHC Press. For additional information or accommodations, contact Holms Troelstrup, assistant director of the Publications Unit, at jhtroel@IllinoisState.edu or (309) 438-3025. Follow the Publications Unit on X (formerly Twitter) @PubUnit_ISU and on Instagram @PubUnit.
