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Sirens Newsletter – Volume 9, Issue 1 (December 2016)

Posted on December 21, 2016 at 9:00 am | Comments Off on Sirens Newsletter – Volume 9, Issue 1 (December 2016)

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In this issue:

 

BELATEDLY

Sirens is a wonderful, amazing, demanding endeavour! While we adore it, it takes the vast majority of our staff’s time in September and October—which leads to a rebound effect in November and December as we catch up on the rest of our commitments to work, families, and friends. We’ll be back in earnest in January, but in the meantime, if you encounter sometimes significant delays in our returning communications, we hope you’ll forgive us.

 

THANK YOU

To all of you who attended and supported Sirens in 2016—thank you! Thank you for bringing your backgrounds, experiences, reading lists, opinions, and wisdom to our community. Thank you for speaking and listening, for discussing and disagreeing, and for doing so with respect and with inclusiveness. Thank you for presenting, for donating, for buying books and t-shirts and auction items. Thank you for leading Books and Breakfast discussions and helping presenters. Sirens is richer and more vibrant because of each of you.

A special thank you to our splendid 2016 guests of honor, Laurie J. Marks, Renée Ahdieh, and Kiini Ibura Salaam, who inspired us with their words—and their willingness to speak true, no matter how hard.

 

SIRENS IN 2017

Our 2017 Sirens website is live! Please visit www.sirensconference.org to learn about this year’s theme of women who work magic: witches, sorceresses, spellcasters, mages, illusionists, and more. Too often, women in fantasy literature are everyday humans navigating a world of wonder; for 2017, we’ll examine women who both have power and wield it. Zoraida Córdova, N. K. Jemisin, and Victoria Schwab will join us as our guests of honor.

Also this year, we’re returning to the recently-renovated luxury hotel, the Vail Cascade Resort and Spa in Vail, Colorado. The conference will run October 26–29, 2017, with the Sirens Studio on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 24–25, and the Sirens Supper on Wednesday, October 25. The Sirens Shuttle will run from the Denver International Airport on Monday night prior to the Studio and on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons; the return trip for all shuttle-riders will depart Vail at noon on Sunday, October 29. (We’re hoping to have Studio faculty announcements out early in 2017—so don’t purchase those plane tickets quite yet! Also, please note that due to renovations, hotel reservations are on hold until the end of the year; we’ll let you know the moment you can reserve a room.)

Registration is currently $190, and will remain that price until the end of the year. The Sirens Studio, the Sirens Supper, and the Sirens Shuttle tickets can be purchased separately. We hope you join us next October!

 

QUIET TIME

As we mentioned above, until the end of the year, the Sirens staff will be quieter than normal as we rebuild and ready ourselves for 2017. Our programming and volunteering systems are closed for maintenance, though we encourage you to keep up-to-date on all the news through our website, Twitter, and newsletter. We’re planning features on our guests, travel, programming, and theme, plus more informal Sirens meet-ups throughout the year. Feel free to grab a graphic to show your support! Of course, if you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback, please email us at (help at sirensconference.org).

We’d also like to remind you that, for a variety of reasons, if you have questions about Sirens, the best place to ask us is by emailing us at (help at sirensconference.org). As an all-volunteer organization, we are not always diligent about checking our social media—and the people who do check it often don’t have the answers that you’re seeking. Thanks for your help and understanding!

 

2017 READING

To keep you busy while we’re out, our 2017 Suggested Reading and Reading Challenge are also live! Check them out, get busy buying or borrowing books, and check back in January for the return of Amy’s Book Club and Read Along with Faye (who did finish the 2016 Challenge!).

 

SUCCESS STORIES

We’ve had many story ideas, personal projects, and career moves sparked by conversations at Sirens. Have you started or changed jobs? Published a book or paper? Gone back to school? Tell us! Shout your good news at the rooftops over at (help at sirensconference.org).

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

 

Questions? Concerns? Please email general queries to (help at sirensconference.org) and questions about programming to (programming at sirensconference.org).

 

Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 6 (September 2016)

Posted on September 28, 2016 at 9:00 am | Comments Off on Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 6 (September 2016)

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In this issue:

 

SCHEDULE
Before arriving in Denver, you might want to review the accepted programming and schedule for Sirens—and daydream about owning a Time-Turner or consider volunteering (see below). You might also want to review the Books and Breakfast list and pick something to chat about before the day’s programming starts. Or perhaps you’d like to squeeze in a few more books from this year’s themed reading list; after all, you have a couple more weeks!

 

UPCOMING INSTRUCTION EMAILS
If you’ve registered for Sirens, please keep an eye on your inbox during the weeks leading up to Sirens. We’ll be sending you emails about meeting the Sirens Shuttle, checking in for the Sirens Studio, finding the Sirens Supper, and claiming your Sirens registration. If you are a presenter, please keep an eye out for email communications from the programming team as well.

Also, if you’re riding the Sirens Shuttle and haven’t provided your flight information, please check your email for a note from the help desk or write to (help at sirensconference.org). We’ll track your progress toward Sirens and make sure that you haven’t run into any delays along the way!

 

VOLUNTEERING
We’d love your help at Sirens! Volunteer shifts vary in length and responsibilities, but most volunteer shifts are during programming and allow you to attend presentations. See the volunteers page on our website for more details. If you’re a returning volunteer, you don’t need to fill out the form—just follow the directions in the email sent through the Google Group.

We could really use your help filling a few remaining shifts. If you’re planning to stick to a room for the whole morning or afternoon anyway, and don’t mind flagging down help if any problems arise, we’d be thrilled to have you volunteer for a few hours, and so would the presenters! Thanks in advance for your help.

 

GUEST OF HONOR INTERVIEW
We’re interviewing our Sirens 2016 Guests of Honor about their inspirations, influences, and craft, to the role of women in fantasy literature as befits our 2016 focus on lovers and the role of love, intimacy, and sex. We can’t wait for you to meet them this October! Here’s the last of our interviews.

From our interview with Laurie J. Marks on the philosophy of aspects of Shaftal that powers the plot of her Elemental Logic series: “[I]t seems feminist to emphasize the importance of an entire community in accomplishing anything worth doing.”
 
 
 
 
 

You may find our interviews with our other 2016 Guests of Honor, Kiini Ibura Salaam and Renée Ahdieh, here and here.

 

BOOKS AND BREAKFAST
Each year, Sirens selects a variety of popular, controversial, and just plain brilliant books related to our theme—and invites attendees to bring their breakfast during the conference and have an informal conversation about those books. For 2016, we’ve kicked Books and Breakfast off early—so all of you have time to choose a couple books and read! This year, we’ve also launched a program to get these books into your hands prior to Sirens.

For extra motivation, we’re giving away copies of each Books and Breakfast book—two each month! Congratulations to @StellaLuna617 on Twitter for winning August’s Giveaway. Check out how you can win Pantomime and Like Water for Chocolate in our post here.

 

BOOKSTORE
Thank you to everyone who has donated books! We really appreciate your support for our mission, and we hope you’ll stop by during Sirens to browse and maybe find a new (or new-to-you) book to add to your collection. If you’re planning to shop, we’ll have books by the guests of honor, from the Books and Breakfast list, and by attending authors, as well as a selection of other really good reads.

 

AUCTION
Do you have an item to donate for this year’s auction? Please let us know by the end of the day on Thursday, October 20, so that we can get your donation onto the auction list. All sorts of items are welcome! If you’d like to donate an item or you have questions, please email Amy Tenbrink at (amy.tenbrink at sirensconference.org). She’d love to hear what you’re planning and address any concerns you might have. Thank you in advance for your support!

 

CONTACTING US DURING SIRENS
Many of our staff will be traveling to Denver as early as Friday, October 14, to prepare for Sirens. While we are in transit and when we’re on site unpacking and setting things up for the conference, we will not be able to monitor our emails as closely as we do at other times. If you have an urgent inquiry during this time, please send it to (help at sirensconference.org) and we will get back to you as quickly as possible.

During the conference, the best way to contact us is in person! While we do check our email, we’re only able to do so sporadically. If you have any questions or would simply like to chat, please stop by our information desk in the Inverness’s Summit D starting at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 20.

 

TWITTER SCHEDULE
Beginning on Tuesday, October 18, we will be posting the Sirens Studio and conference schedule on our Twitter. If you prefer not to receive these reminders, you may want to mute or unfollow @sirens_con until Monday, October 24. (The schedule will not be posted on Facebook, though a few highlights might be.)

 

AMY’S BOOK CLUB

Assassin's Gambit

Last month, Sirens co-founder Amy Tenbrink read Amy Raby’s Assassin’s Gambit, full of fantasy romance, rebel assassins, and sex: “Assassin’s Gambit has solid fantasy world-building, pretty funny dialogue, and unlike a lot of fantasy heroines, a super-competent heroine who saves the world.” Check out her review on the blog and Goodreads.

 

READ ALONG WITH FAYE

Shades of Milk and Honey

Are you close to finishing the 2016 Sirens Reading Challenge? Faye is! Last month she read Mary Robinette Kowal’s Shades of Milk and Honey, which she found full of Jane Austen analogues and “familiar plot twists like secret arrangements, duels and carriage chases” but she was impressed by the masterful weaving of magic, or “glamour” into the worldbuilding. Check out her review on the blog and Goodreads.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

 

Questions? Concerns? Please email general queries to (help at sirensconference.org) and questions about programming to (programming at sirensconference.org).

 

Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 5 (August 2016)

Posted on August 31, 2016 at 1:30 pm | Comments Off on Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 5 (August 2016)

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In this issue:

 

INVERNESS HOTEL
In 2016, Sirens’s hotel is again the Inverness Hotel and Conference Center, a Destination Hotels resort in south Denver. Everything Sirens will take place at the Inverness, from our pre-conference Sirens Studio and Sirens Supper to our programming, to our Ball of Enchantment, and to our Sunday breakfast and auction. For Sirens, the Inverness is where you want to be.

We strongly recommend making your reservations at the Inverness Hotel as soon as possible, both so that you have the best shot at reserving a room in our block and so, if you miss our block, you’ll have the best chance to get a room off the waitlist. If you are running into issues with availability making reservations online, please call the hotel at (303) 799-5800, and if you still have trouble making a reservation, please email us at (help at sirensconference.org). Check out our latest hotel post for pictures, amenities, discounted rate information, and tips on finding a roommate.

 

TICKETS
Tickets for the Sirens Shuttle and Sirens Studio are still available. The Sirens Shuttle offers discounted group transportation to and from Denver International Airport, for you and any friends or family who’d like a ride too. The Sirens Studio, features two days of workshop intensives (for readers, writers, and professionals), discussion, networking opportunities, and flexible time for you to use however you wish. If you’d like to join us for some—or all—of these, tickers can be added to a registration until registration closes on September 17. Tickets for these events are unlikely to be available at the door.

 

BRING A FRIEND!
If you’ve already registered for Sirens, check your inboxes! Last week, we sent a promotional code to all registered attendees that entitles the user to a $10 discount. It can be used only once, and your friend needs to register between now and September 17, 2016. We can’t wait to meet them!

 

SUPPORT SIRENS
At Sirens, we’re committed to keeping the cost of attendance as low as possible for all attendees. Because of that commitment, we run an unusual budget structure: the costs of presenting Sirens far exceed our registration revenue. Each year, exceptionally kind individuals, many of them on our staff, cover approximately half that gap through thousands of dollars in donations, necessary to make a space that discusses and celebrates the remarkable women of fantasy literature real.

And you can help. Please click the links for more information:

Narrate Conferences, Inc., the presenting organization behind Sirens, is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Therefore, all donations to Sirens are eligible for tax deduction in accordance with U.S. law.

 

ATTENDING AUTHORS
If you are a published author attending Sirens, please let us know. We’d like to make sure we have your books available in our bookstore—and if you’d like, a place for you in our author signing time. Please send an email to Amy at (amy.tenbrink at sirensconference.org).

 

GUEST OF HONOR INTERVIEWS
We’re interviewing our Sirens 2016 Guests of Honor about their inspirations, influences, and craft, to the role of women in fantasy literature as befits our 2016 focus on lovers and the role of love, intimacy, and sex. We can’t wait for you to meet them this October!

From our interview with Kiini Ibura Salaam on what makes a Kiini heroine: “I love people who live boldly. I think we all have parts of us that want to be free. Those are the characters that fascinate me most as well—characters who have impact, who have strong identities, who are pushing against the forces that would control them.”
 
 
 
 

From our interview with Renée Ahdieh on heroes and villains in her novels: “I tend to enjoy writing in spaces of moral grey. The world in which we live is really not as black and white as we’d like to believe it to be… Every choice—every experience—has risk and reward. And those risks/rewards are never as clear-cut as we wish they were.”

 
 
 

Our interview with our third 2016 Guest of Honor, Laurie J. Marks is coming next month, so stay tuned!

 

BOOKS AND BREAKFAST
Each year, Sirens selects a variety of popular, controversial, and just plain brilliant books related to our theme—and invites attendees to bring their breakfast during the conference and have an informal conversation about those books. For 2016, we’ve kicked Books and Breakfast off early—so all of you have time to choose a couple books and read! This year, we’ve also launched a program to get these books into your hands prior to Sirens.

For extra motivation, we’re giving away copies of each Books and Breakfast book—two each month! Congratulations to @strixbrevis on Twitter for winning July’s Giveaway. Check out how you can win Joplin’s Ghost and There Once Lived a Girl… in our post here.

 

AMY’s BOOK CLUB

Star-Touched Queen

Sirens co-founder Hallie Tibbetts subs for Amy this month in Amy’s Book Club! Check out her review of Roshani Chokshi's The Star-Touched Queen, on the blog and Goodreads, which she found to be a “lyrical story that incorporates Hindu myth into a romantic, lush read.”

 

READ ALONG WITH FAYE

BoySnowBird

Read along with Faye as she completes the 2016 Sirens Reading Challenge! This month she read Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird, which she loved for how it delved into the implications of racial passing if not for gender. Check out her review on the blog and Goodreads.

 

SIRENS REVIEW SQUAD

Sorcerer to the Crown

Kayla Shifrin discusses and critiques revolution, political symbols and YA heroines in Alaya Dawn Johnson’s The Summer Prince. Check out her full review over on the blog.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

 

Questions? Concerns? Please email general queries to (help at sirensconference.org) and questions about programming to (programming at sirensconference.org).

 

Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 4 (July 2016)

Posted on July 21, 2016 at 9:00 am | Comments Off on Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 4 (July 2016)

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In this issue:

 

SIRENS STUDIO
We are thrilled to bring the Sirens Studio back in 2016—and to say that it’ll be even better this year, with eight intensives led by extraordinary faculty on topics related to reading, writing, and career development.

While Sirens is terrific, it can be hectic: so many people to see, so many conversations to have, not nearly enough time to grab a seat by the fire and just read. The Sirens Studio, however, gives you both what you love about Sirens and that down time that we all need: small-group workshop intensives led by exceptional faculty in the morning; flexible time to read, write, or relax in the afternoon; and a film screening at night.

Like last year, the cost of attending is $50 for the full two days of the Studio, and we are limiting attendance to 50 participants. If you think you’d might like to join us, please check out our schedule, workshop intensives, and faculty—and then go here to purchase your ticket. We will also offer Studio participants a Monday night Sirens Shuttle option.

 

PROGRAMMING
We’re getting ready to start revealing this year’s presentations! The presenter registration deadline was July 9; if you missed it and are still planning to present—or if you missed the email with the result of your proposal—please write to (programming at sirensconference.org) right away. We’ll start posting accepted presentations shortly, in small batches, and putting together the conference schedule. Thanks for your assistance—and thank you again to everyone who proposed programming for this year.

By the way, once the accepted presentations start being posted on the Sirens website, you can show your support for a presenter or topic by sponsoring their session. The cost is $35 per presentation, and assuming we have your donation by August 15, 2016, we will include your name next to your chosen topic on our website and in our program book for this year’s event.

 

SCHOLARSHIPS
All recipients of scholarships (and those who didn’t receive a scholarship this year) have been sent an email about how to claim their registrations and shuttle tickets. Thank you to everyone who applied!

And thank you again to everyone who donated to support our scholarship program! In the end, we were able to provide eight scholarships.

 

BOOKS AND BREAKFAST​
Each year, Sirens selects a variety of popular, controversial, and just plain brilliant books related to our theme—and invites attendees to bring their breakfast during the conference and have an informal conversation about those books. For 2016, we’ve kicked Books and Breakfast off early—so all of you have time to choose a couple books and read! This year, we’ve also launched a program to get these books into your hands prior to Sirens.

For extra motivation, we’re giving away copies of each Books and Breakfast book—two each month! Congratulations to Kristen B. for winning June’s Giveaway. Check out how you can win Sorcerer to the Crown and Project Unicorn Vol. 1 in our post here.

 

LET’S MEET UP!
Though nothing will replace the awesomeness of four days of Sirens in October, we’re hosting a few casual meet-ups for members of Sirens community to gather throughout the year. Coming up, a meet-up in Denver!

Date: Sunday, July 31, 2016
Time: 3:00–5:00 p.m. (Mountain Time)
Location: Slattery’s Irish Pub in the Landmark, 5364 Greenwood Plaza Boulevard in Greenwood Village, Colorado
Notes: Participants must pay for their own drinks and snacks.

We welcome all members, first-timers and veteran, and you don’t need to have attended Sirens in the past to join us. Are you new and curious? Heard of us but haven’t made it to Sirens yet? Wondering if our community is for you? Come on down! And bring your book recommendations, your friends, and your questions about Sirens.

If you think you might join us, please RSVP to either @sirens_con on Twitter, here on Facebook, or to Faye at (faye.bi at sirensconference.org).

We hope to see you soon!

 

AMY’s BOOK CLUB

LivingNextDoortotheGodofLove

What is Sirens co-founder Amy Tenbrink reading this month? Check out her review of Justina Robson’s Living Next Door to the God of Love on the blog and on Goodreads. Some things she liked: “A killer opening. Unbelievably skillful, detailed world-building. Writing that is both rich and careful. Fully realized characters. Universe-level themes of love and humanity and society.”

 

READ ALONG WITH FAYE

Sorcerer to the Crown

Follow Faye as she completes the 2016 Sirens Reading Challenge! This month, she read Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown, which she found delightfully charming, and hopes that more authors like Zen will be “influenced by the great works of the past and with similar wit and style, create new, original stories for all.” Will you Read Along with her? Check out her review on the blog and Goodreads.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

Testimonials:

Last month we ran Artemis Grey’s powerful testimonial on the Sirens blog. Artemis has attended Sirens since our first conference in 2009, and just published her first novel, Catskin, in March 2016. Below is an excerpt:

But she wanted to know if there was a place for her, if there were other feral girls out there who wrote stories that were almost good enough, and other women who glided between the borders of expectation and propriety. So she went to Sirens, and everything changed.

The girl was welcomed not as a stranger, but as a sister returning home. She was brought into a fold where authors sat in circles on the floor and discussed how to find ways of writing things that were important, and yet did not fall into the mainstream definition of Important. How to change society’s definition of what was Important. She discovered, within Sirens, a world of women supporting women, supporting ideas, and processes, and points of view. A world of women embracing everything that makes them different while finding unity in everything that they share. Her Sirens Sisters did not teach her how to change herself in order to speak out, they taught her that once she discovered her own voice, it would be loud enough to be heard.

Please read the rest of the testimonial here.

 

Questions? Concerns? Please email general queries to (help at sirensconference.org) and questions about programming to (programming at sirensconference.org).

 

Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 3 (June 2016)

Posted on June 9, 2016 at 9:00 am | Comments Off on Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 3 (June 2016)

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In this issue:

 

PROGRAMMING
Thank you to everyone who proposed programming last month! The vetting board has been busy reviewing those proposals and determining which to select for presentation at Sirens in 2016. Decisions will be emailed to presenters by June 13, and presenters must be registered by July 9. Decisions on scholarships will be emailed at about the same time proposal decisions are sent. We can’t wait to share this year’s programming with you.

 

SCHOLARSHIPS! AND A DEADLINE!
Thanks to the generosity of the Sirens community, we were able to fund eight scholarships for 2016. Three have been provided to Con or Bust, which helps people of color attend events, to be allocated in accordance with their policies. Another three will be provided for exemplary programming proposals, as determined by our scholarship committee. The final two scholarships are designated as financial hardships scholarships, open to anyone. A short application, at https://www.sirensconference.org/attend/scholarships.php, is required, and due by June 15. Recipients will be chosen randomly.

 

BOOKS AND BREAKFAST
For 2016, we’re kicking off our Books and Breakfast program early! Each year, Sirens selects a variety of popular, controversial, and just plain brilliant books on our theme—and invites attendees to bring their breakfast during the conference and have an informal conversation about those books. We’ll hope you’ll read a book or two and join us!

Friday, October 21

About a Girl by Sarah McCarry
Pantomime by Laura Lam
Joplin’s Ghost by Tananarive Due
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Saturday, October 22

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Project Unicorn, Vol. 1 by Sarah Diemer and Jennifer Diemer
Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope
There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

This year, for extra motivation, we’re giving copies of each Books and Breakfast book, two each month starting this month. Check out how you can win About a Girl and Song of Blood and Stone in our post here.

 

COMING SOON
Keep an eye on social media and your inbox! We’ve got a number of announcements coming your way as soon as final details are in place, and we know you’ll want to know who’s on the Sirens Studio faculty, which proposals are on the programming schedule, and most importantly, what’s for lunch. Some of these emails may request a response at your earliest convenience.

 

BEHIND THE SCENES
In mid-May, Sirens had to move our website to a new hosting provider. Our tech team did a great job, and we hope that the change means fewer connectivity issues. If you emailed us, or were expecting an email, in May and didn’t receive a notice or response, please check your bulk email (you might be finding messages from us in bulk, especially if you use Gmail, and we’re finding messages from you in our bulk folders too), and please don’t hesitate to contact us again if you think your message might have gone astray.

 

AMY’S BOOK CLUB

TheGildaStories

What is Sirens co-founder Amy Tenbrink reading this month? Check out her review of Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories on the blog and on Goodreads, which was written in 1991 and “features a protagonist that is black, a lesbian, and a vampire. It depicts slavery. It addresses racism and homophobia. It is unrepentantly feminist.”

 

READ ALONG WITH FAYE

Bone Gap

This month Faye Bi reads Laura Ruby’s Bone Gap in an effort to complete the 2016 Reading Challenge, which she found full of “stunning ruminations on the burden of beauty, consent and redemption.” Will you Read Along with her? Check out her review on the blog and Goodreads.

 

SIRENS REVIEW SQUAD

Vermilion

Our Sirens Review Squad is back! Sharon K. Goetz puts in her two cents on Molly Tanzer’s Vermilion, which she praised for its premise and setting—“Steampunk-era San Francisco (“weird Western”) with an embrace of the city’s Chinese traditions.” Read the review here.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

Testimonials:

 

Questions? Concerns? Please email general queries to (help at sirensconference.org) and questions about programming to (programming at sirensconference.org).

 

Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 2 (May 2016)

Posted on May 4, 2016 at 9:00 am | Comments Off on Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 2 (May 2016)

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In this issue:

 

WE’RE BACK!
Dear Sirens,

We’re so happy to be back and at it for Sirens 2016—and we welcome you to another full year of great books to read, heated debates to have, and brilliant people to meet. To get started, check out our Mission Post for this year, and find out more about the 2016 theme, lovers. And don’t forget, here are some important announcements with fast-approaching deadlines!

 

PROGRAMMING DEADLINE—MAY 9
Most programming for Sirens is conceived and presented by attendees. You create it, you propose it, and—when approved by our vetting board—you present it. That means we’d love to hear from you! There’s no requirement to become a presenter; anyone and everyone is welcome to propose and present programming.

Check out our Annual Programming Series (here’s Part One), our list of #SirensBrainstorm topics on Twitter, free for the taking, and everything you need to know on our Programming and Proposals pages on the Sirens website. The deadline for proposals is May 9, 2016.

 

SCHOLARSHIPS
Last year, the Sirens community raised almost $2,500 to help people of color, presenters, and those with financial hardships attend Sirens. In-person attendance requires funds—which means that not everyone who wishes to is able to join us. Their absence makes both our conference and our community less vibrant. At the time of this newsletter, we’re almost to 60% of our goal, more than halfway there! And if you’re wondering if Sirens scholarships make a difference, please read what Lisa M. Bradley, a 2015 scholarship recipient, has to say.
 

We’re accepting donations until May 9, 2016. Will you donate to help welcome more voices to Sirens?

 

AMY’S BOOK CLUB

TheGirlFromEverywhere

What is Sirens co-founder Amy Tenbrink reading this month? Check out her review of Heidi Heilig’s The Girl From Everywhere over on Goodreads. “Read it for: the world-building and the wonderfully diverse characters and the last act…You can totally read this as a stand-alone and be perfectly happy.”

 

READ ALONG WITH FAYE

Elysium

Introducing Read Along with Faye, a new series in which Sirens staff member Faye Bi reads her way through the 2016 Reading Challenge. First up, Jennifer Marie Brissett’s Elysium, which Faye found “parts emotional rollercoaster, ambitious post-apocalyptic world-building and, ultimately, a saga of love and loss.”

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

Our Annual Programming Series:

Testimonials:

 

Questions? Concerns? Please email general queries to (help at sirensconference.org) and questions about programming to (programming at sirensconference.org).

 

Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 1 (November 2015)

Posted on November 23, 2015 at 9:00 am | Comments Off on Sirens Newsletter – Volume 8, Issue 1 (November 2015)

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In this issue:

 

SIRENS IN 2015
Thank you, thank you, thank you for making Sirens in 2015 utterly amazing.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, for wrestling with tough questions, for celebrating successes, for commiserating on struggles, and most of all, for recognizing the depth and breadth of work related to women in fantasy literature. Thank you for welcoming newcomers and connecting with old friends. Thank you for contributing to (and buying from!) our auction and our store; every penny is appreciated.

And a hearty thank you to our 2015 guests of honor—Rae Carson, Kate Elliott, and Yoon Ha Lee—who regaled us with engaging, informative, heartfelt, and funny keynotes.

Guest of Honor Kate Elliott - Thursday, October 8, 2015.Guest of Honor Yoon Ha Lee - Friday, October 9, 2015.Bedtime Stories at Sirens in 2015. From top to bottom: Rae Carson, Yoon Ha Lee, and Kate Elliott.Guest of Honor Rae Carson - Saturday, October 10, 2015.

 

SIRENS IN 2016
Our website for 2016 is up! You can find it, as always, at www.sirensconference.org. We hope you’ll visit to find out more about next year’s theme, lovers: In fantasy literature, as in the real world, whom we choose to love changes us—and helps us change the world. Renée Ahdieh, Laurie J. Marks, and Kiini Ibura Salaam will attend as our guests of honor.

We will remain at the Inverness for another year, and Sirens will be held October 20–23, 2016, with the pre-conference Sirens Studio on Tuesday, October 18, and Wednesday, October 19, and the Sirens Supper on Wednesday, October 19. The Sirens Shuttle will run on Monday, October 18; Wednesday, October 19; Thursday, October 20; and on Sunday, October 23, for the return trip to Denver International Airport. Registration for the conference is currently $190, and will remain at that price until the end of the year. Studio, Supper, and Shuttle tickets can be purchased separately.

For now, our programming and volunteering systems remain closed for some maintenance, but we’ll be sure to shout the news when they’re available again. You can still get all the news on our website, and we’ll be featuring more on our guests, travel, programming, and theme throughout the year. In the meantime, feel free to grab a graphic to show your support. We hope you can join us next October!

 

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE: QUESTIONS
If you have questions, please email us at (help at sirensconference.org), and we’ll make sure your question goes to someone who can answer it. We know that questions come up when you’re on social media, but our social media team doesn’t have the answers for most questions, and most social media channels don’t allow us to answer accurately, fully, securely, or quickly, at least not while we remain a volunteer-run conference. Thanks for your understanding! Our operators are standing by….

 

QUIET TIME
Between now and the end of the year, we’ll be a little quieter than normal; with the hectic preparation for Sirens over, and the new website up and ready for registrations, we think of these few weeks as “summer vacation” for Sirens. We do always love to hear about interesting links and fantasy releases, though, and if you run into any problems or questions, you can always email us at (help at sirensconference.org).

 

TELL US ABOUT IT: SUCCESS!
We know that many story ideas, personal projects, and career moves have started at Sirens. Sometimes, those ideas and changes have been successful immediately; at other times, those sparks took years to grow into a flame. If you’ve got a story to share about how attending Sirens is connected to a success you’ve had, we’d love to hear about it, and we’d love to have you share it. Please email (help at sirensconference.org) by December 1. Many thanks!

 

READING CHALLENGE
If you’re looking for a bit of structure for your Sirens reading, or you simply love a challenge, you’re in the right place. Each year, our staff reads a wide selection of fantasy works written by women, some within our theme and some more broadly. This year, we invite you to take our challenge!

To take the challenge, read 25 books according to the rules on our Reading Challenge page. And keep track: we’ll be waiting for you with a button next October.

 

SUGGESTED READING
If you’re not up for a challenge, but want some new fantasy selections to read, we have gathered a wide-ranging collection of books for our 2016 suggested reading list—not just the works by this year’s guests of honor, but fantasy by and about women that connect to this year’s lovers theme.

Also, Amy will be running her book club on our Goodreads group again this year. Each year, she selects a book a month from the suggested reading list that she hasn’t already read. She reads and reviews, and you’re welcome to join in the conversation. The books for 2016 are already up over at Goodreads.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

Testimonials: Inspired by Sirens–Edith Hope Bishop

Testimonials: Inspired by Sirens–Artemis Grey

Testimonials: Inspired by Sirens–Yoon Ha Lee

Testimonials: Inspired by Sirens–Nivair Gabriel

Suzi Rogers Gruber: Fantasy Works Featuring Women Who Fight Back

Missing the book releases and interesting links? Keep an eye out—we’ll be catching up on autumn news soon!

 

Questions? Concerns? Please email general queries to (help at sirensconference.org) and questions about programming to (programming at sirensconference.org).

 

Sirens Newsletter – Volume 7, Issue 11 (September 2015)

Posted on September 8, 2015 at 5:00 pm | Comments Off on Sirens Newsletter – Volume 7, Issue 11 (September 2015)

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In this issue:

 

REGISTRATION DEADLINE
Sirens is next month—and we can’t wait to see you! If you haven’t purchased your registration yet, please make sure to do so by September 12. When the clock strikes 11:59 p.m. on September 12, we’ll close our online registration system. After that, you must register at the door at an increased price.

If you have any questions, please contact us at (registration at sirensconference.org).

 

TICKETS
The registration deadline is also the deadline to purchase tickets for the Sirens Shuttle, Sirens Supper, and Sirens Studio. The Sirens Shuttle provides attendees and their guests affordable transportation to and from the Denver International Airport. The Sirens Supper is a wonderful way to connect with staff and attendees the night before the conference officially launches. And, new this year, the Sirens Studio offers two days of workshops, networking opportunities, discussions, and flexible time for writers, readers, and professionals. We’ll stop selling these tickets on September 12, and they’re very unlikely to be available at the door, so add them to your registration before the deadline.

 

TRAVEL AND HOTEL RESERVATIONS
No matter how you’re traveling to Sirens, we have information available for you on the transportation page of our website. Denver is a large and sprawling city, but the Inverness Hotel offers some fabulous amenities and dining options right at home. If you haven’t made your hotel reservations yet, please do so by calling the hotel directly at (303) 799-5800; rooms are filling up quickly. (Please do not call the toll-free number, since they don’t seem aware of our room block.) If you have any issues making a reservation and getting the Sirens discount rate, please do let us know at (help at sirensconference.org).

 

UPCOMING INSTRUCTION EMAILS
If you’ve registered for Sirens, please keep an eye on your inbox during the beginning of October. We’ll be sending you emails regarding, as appropriate, meeting the Sirens Shuttle, checking in for the Sirens Studio, finding the Sirens Supper, and claiming your Sirens registration.

 

SCHEDULE
If you’ve got all of your travel details set, it might be time to review the accepted programming and schedule for Sirens and daydream about owning a Time-Turner, or to volunteer (see below). It might also be time to review the Books and Breakfast list and pick out something to chat about before the day’s programming starts, or time to squeeze in a few more books from this year’s themed reading list. Remember, if you’ve finished this year’s Reading Challenge, please email us by September 12 to let us know of your victory; we’ll have a button suitable for gloating waiting for you at Sirens!

 

VOLUNTEERING
We’d love your help at Sirens! Volunteer shifts vary in length and responsibilities, but most volunteer shifts are during programming and allow you to attend presentations. You might help people find seats, turn microphones on or off, give presenters their five-minute warnings that time is up, and gather lost and found items. See the volunteers page page on our website for more details. If you’re a returning volunteer, you don’t need to fill out the form—just follow the directions in the email sent through the Google Group. Thank you!

 

SUPPORT SIRENS
Each year, Sirens raises thousands of dollars in order to hold the conference and to keep registration costs as low as possible for everyone—even as the cost of hosting events skyrockets. If you can support Sirens through a donation of money, auction items, or used books, we’d be very appreciative.

 

GUEST OF HONOR INTERVIEW

Rae Carson

Read our in-depth interview with Guest of Honor Rae Carson, where she discusses inspirations, gold panning, Princess Leia, writing and more.

 

AMY’S BOOK CLUB

AnEmberintheAshes

Come read with us! Sirens co-founder Amy leads the Sirens Book Club each month. September’s book is An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. Join the discussion on Goodreads.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

July Recap: Sirens News, Book Releases, and Interesting Links

Sirens Accepted Programming for 2015: Roundtable Discussions

Sirens Accepted Programming for 2015: Workshops

Sirens Accepted Programming for 2015: Afternoon Classes

Sirens Accepted Programming for 2015: Panels

Rae Carson: Five Young Adult Fantasy Works with Adult Crossover Appeal

Andrea Horbinski: Five Fantasies of the Roaring Twenties from the New Gilded Age

Erynn Moss: Eight Fantasy Works That Don’t Over-Explain

s.e. smith: Five Dark and Twisty Young Adult Works

Casey Blair: Six Secondary World Urban Fantasies

Testimonials: If you’ve attended Sirens more than once, why did you decide to come back to Sirens?

Sirens Support

 

Questions? Concerns? Please email general queries to (help at sirensconference.org) and questions about programming to (programming at sirensconference.org).

 

Sirens Newsletter – Volume 7, Issue 10 (August 2015)

Posted on August 5, 2015 at 6:00 pm | Comments Off on Sirens Newsletter – Volume 7, Issue 10 (August 2015)

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In this issue:

 

INTERVIEWS WITH GUESTS OF HONOR

Kate Elliott Yoon Ha Lee

We recently posted Sirens interviews with two of our guests of honor for 2015: Kate Elliott and Yoon Ha Lee, and they’ve got some fascinating things to say about reading, writing, and women in fantasy. Coming soon, we’ll interview our third guest of honor, Rae Carson, as well!

 

REGISTRATION DEADLINE
The deadline to register for Sirens is fast approaching. If you haven’t purchased your registration yet, please make sure to do so before registration closes on September 12. After that, you must register at the door at an increased price. If you have any questions, please contact us at (registration at sirensconference.org).

 

TICKETS
Tickets for the Sirens Shuttle, Sirens Supper, and Sirens Studio are still available. The Sirens Shuttle offers discounted group transportation to and from Denver International Airport, for you and any friends or family who’d like a ride too. The Sirens Supper is our annual pre-conference dinner, and a great way to kick off the conference. Finally, our new offering, the Sirens Studio, features two days of workshop intensives (for readers, writers, and professionals), discussion, networking opportunities, and flexible time for you to use however you wish. If you’d like to join us for some—or all—of these, tickers can be added to a registration until registration closes on September 12 . Tickets for these events are unlikely to be available at the door.

 

HOTEL RESERVATIONS
Don’t forget to make reservations to stay with us at the Inverness Hotel in the south Denver metro area. Rooms are filling up quickly, especially for the Sirens Studio days (and nights)! If you’re seeking roommates, let us know on Twitter so we can retweet your search, or make a post on Facebook or our website message boards. If you have any issues making a reservation and getting the Sirens discount rate, please do let us know at (help at sirensconference.org); if we can help, we certainly will. Read more about why staying at the hotel helps us and why you will want to stay at the Inverness.

 

PROGRAMMING SPONSORSHIPS
You can see the presentations we’ve accepted from Sirens attendees on the accepted programming page. (The schedule is undergoing proofreading as you read this!) If you see a presentation you love, consider sponsoring the presentation under your name or on behalf of a group! Presentation sponsorships cost only $35, and the proceeds go entirely to Sirens’ expenses. We appreciate your donations, and if you sponsor a presentation by August 21, we’ll be able to list your donation not just on the website, but in the printed program book that all attendees receive.

 

VOLUNTEERING
Would you like to help out during Sirens? Volunteer shifts vary in length and responsibilities, but most volunteer shifts are during programming and allow you to attend presentations; you might help people find seats, turn microphones on or off, give presenters their five-minute warnings that time is up, and gather lost and found items. See the volunteers page on our website for more details. If you’re a returning volunteer, you don’t need to fill out the form—just keep an eye out for email from the Google Group. We’ll be sending information about available volunteer shifts to group members. Thank you!

 

AMY’S BOOK CLUB

InGreatWaters

Come read with us! Sirens co-founder Amy leads the Sirens Book Club each month. August’s book is In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield. Join the discussion here on Goodreads.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

Books for Friday’s Books and Breakfast and Saturday’s Books and Breakfast have been announced.

Sherwood Smith: Influential Fantasy for Heroines

Hallie Tibbetts: Sirens Accepted Programming for 2015: Papers

June Recap: Sirens News, Book Releases, and Interesting Links has become its very own special feature, with links, book releases, and more. We’ve rounded up June, and July is on its way…

Yoon Ha Lee: Six Fantasy Works for Sirens

Shveta Thakrar: Seven Fantasy Books Featuring Non-Western Mythology and Folklore

Kate Elliott: Five Fabulous Epic Fantasy Works by Women

Hallie Tibbetts: Six Fantasy Books with Non-US Settings

Testimonials and a Love Letter

 

Questions? Concerns? Please email general queries to (help at sirensconference.org) and questions about programming to (programming at sirensconference.org).

 

Sirens Newsletter – Volume 7, Issue 9 (July 2015)

Posted on July 1, 2015 at 9:00 am | Comments Off on Sirens Newsletter – Volume 7, Issue 9 (July 2015)

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In this issue:

 

PRICE INCREASE
On July 8, 2015, the Sirens registration price increases from $195 to $205. Register now and save! Sirens registrations include access to everything that happens at Sirens between 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 8, and noon on Sunday, October 11: all guest of honor keynotes, all programming, all events, and a conference t-shirt. Tickets for the Sirens Shuttle, Sirens Supper, and Sirens Studio won’t increase in price, but remaining spots are limited. Registration closes September 12; after that, you must register at the door.

 

PRESENTER REGISTRATION
July 7 is the deadline for presenters to be registered for Sirens. If you’re a presenter and need an extra day or two to register and pay, please be sure to coordinate with (programming at sirensconference.org) so that your accepted presentation is not dropped from the schedule.

 

SCHOLARSHIPS
All recipients of scholarships (and those who didn’t receive a scholarship this year) have been sent an email about how to claim their registrations and shuttle tickets. Thank you to everyone who applied!

And thank you again to everyone who donated to support our scholarship program! In the end, we were able to provide nine scholarships.

 

PROGRAMMING SPONSORSHIPS
As we finalize details, verify presenters, and tidy up descriptions, we’ll be posting presentations offered up by Sirens attendees on the accepted programming page. If you see one you love, we hope you’ll consider sponsoring the presentation, whether anonymously, under your name, or on behalf of a group! Programming sponsorships cost only $35, and the proceeds go to covering Sirens’s expenses. (You can sponsor a presentation by clicking the link that says “Sponsor Programming” on that page.) We appreciate your donations, and if you sponsor a presentation by August 21, we’ll be able to list your donation not just on the website, but in the printed program book that all Sirens attendees receive.

A schedule for the conference weekend will be posted soon; please keep an eye out on Twitter and Facebook for an announcement.

 

BOOKS AND BREAKFAST
Books and Breakfast will be held on Friday, October 9, and Saturday, October 10. For those of you who are new to Sirens, each year we select unusual, controversial, and popular books within our theme, and invite you to bring your own breakfast and join us for informal chats about books before programming begins in the morning.

It’s perfectly okay to join in Books and Breakfast if you haven’t read any of the books, but if you’d like to come prepared (and it’s a lot more fun if you come having read at least one book each day), here are the 2015 selections. Ready? Start reading!

Friday, October 9
Bitterblue, Kristin Cashore
The Book of Phoenix, Nnedi Okorafor
An Ember in the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir
Fire Logic, Laurie J. Marks
The Summer Prince, Alaya Dawn Johnson		 2015BooksandBreakfast-Friday
 
Saturday, October 10
Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson
The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, Ambelin Kwaymullina
The Mirror Empire, Kameron Hurley
The Young Elites, Marie Lu		 2015BooksandBreakfast-Saturday

 

TRAVELING TO SIRENS
If you’re flying to Sirens, you’ll likely arrive at Denver International Airport. Denver International is a hub for air travel and most major airlines will take you there.

Ground transportation in Denver is expensive, but Sirens offers the Sirens Shuttle so that you can ride to and from Denver International Airport with other attendees for much less than it costs to travel alone! We’ll pick you up and return you to the airport for $60. We have Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday arrival options, and a Sunday departure; please make sure to check the Sirens Shuttle schedule before booking your flights. You can add tickets for yourself or friends on a new registration or to an existing registration.

It’s also time to make your reservations at the Inverness Hotel. The Inverness rate for standard rooms for Sirens attendees, regardless of occupancy, is $129 beginning the night of October 4, 2015, and ending the night of October 13, 2015. If you’re sharing, you might be especially pleased to know that there are cozy nooks on each floor that might make excellent places to hang out if your sleeping patterns don’t match those of your roommate(s).

Please note that, like most conferences, Sirens commits to filling a certain number of guest rooms at the Inverness in order to hold the event at the hotel. By staying at the Inverness, you’ll not only ensure that you’re part of Sirens around the clock, you’ll help us cover the costs of presenting Sirens as well!

1bed 2beds nook

 

AMY’S BOOK CLUB

RedQueen

Come read with us! Sirens co-founder Amy leads the Sirens Book Club each month. July’s book is Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. Join the discussion here on Goodreads.

 

JUNE BOOK RELEASES AND INTERESTING LINKS
We’ll be sending these your way later this month. Keep an eye on our Twitter or Facebook for the good—and interesting—news.

Questions? Concerns? Please email general queries to (help at sirensconference.org) and questions about programming to (programming at sirensconference.org).

 

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