This interview has been edited for length and clarity. īut before you click, see what author Alderson shared about why she wrote this new book and what she hopes you’ll discover. You can also access the rules on that page. 26, 2021, at 12 p.m., by visiting our sweepstakes page here. You can enter for the chance to win a copy between Aug. Ready to read? Good news! We’re giving away 50 copies of this book to Sisters readers via a new sweepstakes. And as we follow these characters, we learn what they’re willing to risk as they fight to be as perfect as possible (to best represent Black women) and support the country they love. (By the way, the WAAC also existed in real life and was the predecessor to the Womens’ Army Corps.)įans of historical and women’s fiction may especially appreciate this novel, as Alderson’s easy-to-read writing about these trailblazing characters has a welcoming touch. There, the two serve in the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion-sound familiar?-where they navigate segregation and forge ahead on their European mission during World War II. Both characters (one musically inclined and the other with legacy experience in journalism) join the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). In Alderson’s novel, however, the two protagonists are Grace Steele and Eliza Jones. And Earley also “served as the highest-ranking Black woman officer during World War II,” the museum notes. Her battalion ensured the delivery of millions of letters, despite segregated living conditions, the National Museum of the United States Army confirms.

Charity Adams Earley, who commanded the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion in England as a major. Say what you will about the marketing, but these women worked in hundreds of fields like military intelligence, cryptography, maintenance and supply and more.Īs Alderson tells Sisters, she drew her inspiration from the stories of Black women who served. When the Army created the Women’s Army Corps, women stepped up to do a variety of critical Army jobs in order “to free a man to fight” during World War II, the U.S. Segregation was still in full force during World War II, and this fictional story has its roots in real American history. In Sisters in Arms: A Novel of the Daring Black Women Who Served During World War II, Alderson tells the story of two Black women from completely different backgrounds who are among the first class of female officers the army has ever seen and the first Black women allowed to serve.

Sisters in arms kaia alderson