Reading Challenge
If you’re looking for a bit more 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, simply read 25 books, in accordance with the rules below, by September 12, 2015. Once you’ve finished, send an email to (help at sirensconference.org) with Reading List Challenge as the subject line, and let us know that you’ve finished the challenge and the books that you read to do so. We’ll give all timely finishers a special button at Sirens, suitable for gloating. Game on.

To purchase these books, please consider using the links below, which will take you to the website of the Tattered Cover, Denver’s renowned independent bookstore. If you use those links and then purchase books or other items, Sirens will receive a referral fee from the Tattered Cover.


Sirens 2015 Reading Challenge

In each required category, you must read—or have previously read—each work listed. In each category of selections, you must select books by authors who are new to you. If you cannot reach the required number of selections without selecting authors you have already read, you may select works you haven’t read by authors you have read before. If you cannot reach the required number of selections without selecting books you’ve read, bravo, and please read as many new-to-you books as you can to complete the challenge.


Guests of Honor: Required

Rae Carson

Kate Elliott
Cold Magic or Court of Fives (forthcoming August 2015)

Yoon Ha Lee



Rebels and Revolutionaries: Required

Margaret Atwood

Alaya Dawn Johnson

Ann Leckie

Melina Marchetta

Nnedi Okorafor

Tamora Pierce

G. Willow Wilson



Rebels and Revolutionaries: Select Five

Katherine Addison

Victoria Aveyard
Red Queen

Kelly Barnhill

Elizabeth Bunce

Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Fine

Catherine Fisher

Shira Glassman

Kameron Hurley

N. K. Jemisin

Erika Johansen

Intisar Khanani

Marie Lu

Laurie J. Marks

Jodi Meadows

Sara Raasch

Sabaa Tahir

Sherry Thomas

Nahoko Uehashi

Kit Whitfield



Middle Grade/Young Adult: Select Five

Lindsey Barraclough

Franny Billingsley

Stephanie Burgis

Emily Carroll

Cinda Williams Chima

Corinne Duyvis

Jessica Day George

Hiromi Goto

Shannon Hale

Rosamund Hodge

Ambelin Kwaymullina

Laura Lam

Margo Lanagan

Grace Lin

Juliet Marillier

Patricia McKillip

Dia Reeves

Heather Tomlinson

Leslye Walton

Ysabeau Wilce



Adult: Select Five

Lauren Beukes

Lois McMaster Bujold

Ronlyn Domingue

Emma Donoghue

Eugie Foster

Charlie N. Holmberg

Mary Robinette Kowal

Violet Kupersmith

Kelly Link

Karen Lord

Kushali Manickavel
Things We Found During the Autopsy

Seanan McGuire

Erin Morganstern

Helen Oyeyemi

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

Kiini Ibura Salaam

Sofia Samatar

Delia Sherman

Karin Tidbeck

Helene Wecker