It runs in the family: we say that about everything from eye color to musical talent. But when one family yields eight books within a single year, it's enough to make one wonder just what was in the drinking water around the New Jersey town inhabited by those near and dear to writer John McPhee.

This fall, McPhee's 28th book—The Founding Fish (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Oct.), an exploration of the storied role of the shad in American and natural history—will be accompanied by the work of three of his daughters. First comes Martha McPhee's second novel, Gorgeous Lies (Harcourt, Sept.), in which a sprawling New Jersey family attempts to come to grips with its declining patriarch. Then there's the paperback of Jenny McPhee's debut novel, The Center of Things, about the romantic travails of a neurotic but appealing tabloid reporter (Ballantine, Oct.), followed by Sarah McPhee's first book, Bernini and the Bell Towers: Architecture and Politics at the Vatican (Yale, Nov.). Also in October, youngest sister Joan Sullivan (a daughter from mother Pryde Brown's later marriage) debuts with An American Voter: My Love Affair with Presidential Politics (Bloomsbury USA), based on her experience working on Bill Bradley's 2000 campaign.

Branching out a little, there's also cousin Charles Lambert McPhee's second work of nonfiction, Ask the Dream Doctor: An A—Z Guide Deciphering the Hidden Symbols Your Dreams (Dell, June). Meanwhile, Martha's husband, poet Mark Svenvold, releases his first work of nonfiction, Elmer McCurdy: The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw (Basic, Nov.). And former son-in-law, Alexander Stille—Sarah's ex, who provided a blurb for Joan—is still considered part of the family act. PW gave the historian's exploration of the double-edged nature of technological change, The Future of the Past (FSG), a starred review when it came out in April.

Along with the influence of John McPhee, the sisters credit their mother—a professional photographer who may yet finish the novel she put aside—with fostering their creative spirits. Jenny, who grew up with her sisters and numerous stepsiblings on a New Jersey farm 10 miles away from her father, takes a philosophical view: "The way I look at it, you either completely rebel [against your family] and do something different, or it's sort of in the air all the time, and it's what you feel most comfortable with."

Mark Svenvold told PW that he is simply in awe of his wife's family. "Around the dinner table, it can be a little hard to get a word in edgewise," he said. "They're close, yet they argue like sisters do and make up like sisters do." His wife, Martha, acknowledges that Jenny, two years her senior, helped her turn their rivalry to a positive end. "She's really taught me that it's a good thing, and to use it and not be embarrassed by it," said Martha. For her part, Jenny admitted, "I have this Brontë sister fantasy. I think of their competition, how they all wanted to produce more and write the better book. It makes us strive in a good way."

While the sisters seek literary support from one another in various ways, they all depend on their mother for guidance. "You've no idea how much reading my mother has to do," observed Joan. "My mother read my novel so much, she knows it by heart," added Martha.

As for their father's influence, Jenny attributes it more to osmosis. "He always told us, 'Don't be a writer,' " she said. The sisters all observed how hard McPhee worked at his craft, "but we always saw, too, how he got such a huge high out of writing. So his example was set by more than his words," Jenny explained. Although John McPhee declined to be interviewed for this article, he told his publicist at FSG that he is immensely proud of his family's achievements, but that he would prefer they receive individual recognition. "That sounds just like him," said nephew Charles. "He is extremely encouraging."

Of all the sisters, Martha's work treads closest to autobiographical terrain. In her latest novel, she returns to the family—brimming with siblings related by blood and remarriage, much like her own—that she introduced in Bright Angel Time. But she doesn't worry too much about offending her relations. "Everyone in this family is a writer or an artist of some form, and they know what goes into creating art," she explained. Sarah, a tenured art history professor at Emory University, likened catching autobiographical glimpses in her sister's work to looking at woven silk. "You get flashes of recognizable things, and that's lovely," she said.

One thing that seems to help this literary family get along is the variety of their work, more of which lies ahead for the McPhee/Sullivan girls. Jenny and Martha, who will tour together this fall, are writing full-time and working on new projects they were reluctant to discuss. Sarah and Joan, who teaches in a public high school in the Bronx, plan to write other books while keeping their day jobs. And Martha predicts that Sarah and Laura will both write novels. "Laura will probably say no," she added. "But they just haven't done it yet." Spoken like a true sister.