Programming
Thank you, so many of you, for proposing programming for Sirens in 2012. We received a record number of proposals! At this point, we have e-mailed all notices regarding this year’s proposals, so if you’re not sure about the status of a proposal, please check your bulk folder, and if you can’t find your e-mail, write to us at (programming at sirensconference.org) to have it sent again.

Thank you also to the members of the vetting board, who had the tricky task of selecting this year’s programming from among the offerings. We think you’ll be thrilled with their picks.

Accepted presenters have until July 1, 2012, to confirm their presentations by registering for Sirens. As they do, we’ll publish their titles, summaries, and presenter biographies on the accepted programming page of the Sirens website.

Books and Breakfast
We know you’re busy reading books by guests of honor Kate Bernheimer, Nalo Hopkinson, and Malinda Lo, but we thought we’d encourage you to seek out a few more! One of our favorite bits of informal programming is Books and Breakfast, held on both Friday and Saturday of Sirens.  These theme-focused book discussions are held before presentations begin, and we encourage you to bring your breakfast along, whether that’s a grab-and-go item from the hotel’s River Rock restaurant, something you brought from home, or a cup of coffee (or tea, cider, or cocoa) from the free offerings in the hotel lobby.  This year, we wanted to expand the book formats, so we’ve added middle grade selections and a graphic novel to our list of retellings. And, as always, we wanted to offer a variety of books that we thought would spark interesting discussions.

The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne Valente (Spectra, 2006)

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Doubleday, 2008)

Roses and Bones: Myths, Tales and Secrets by Francesca Lia Block (HarperTeen, 2010)

Sailor Moon (manga, being re-released as Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon) by Naoko Takeuchi (any release of Acts 1-5, which was released in the U.S. by Tokyopop in 2003; other versions also available)

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011)

Saturday, October 13
A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Scholastic, 2008)

The Dark Wife by Sarah Deimer (Createspace, 2011)

Mella and the N’anga: An African Tale by Gail Nyoka (Sumach Press, 2006)

Peaceweaver by Rebecca Barnhouse (Random House, 2012)

The Sigh by Marjane Satrapi (Archaia Entertainment, 2011)

There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (trans. Keith Gessen and Anna Summers) (Penguin, 2009)

Sirens Supper
Unfortunately, we don’t yet have anything to report, since we don’t want to sell tickets until we can offer a menu. We are, of course, wrangling Skamania for menus, and as soon as tickets are available, we’ll post announcements and e-mail all registered attendees. Thank you for your patience!

Sirens Shuttle
We can, however, report good news about the Sirens Shuttle! The announcement about shuttle times and tickets can be found here. Even better, we verified that Portland International Airport has a luggage storage facility. What does this mean? If you’ve got a long wait at the airport—and you’re tired of the free Wi-Fi, or the restaurants and shops, many of which are available before and after the security checkpoint and offer the same prices as off-airport locations—you can drop your bags with luggage storage on the baggage claim level for $10 per bag. Then, from the other end of baggage claim, you can take the MAX Red Line to Portland for sightseeing. Please plan to arrive back at the airport by 3 p.m. if you need to get your luggage and catch the Sirens Shuttle.

Questions? You can comment here or write to us at (help at sirensconference.org).