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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2009
Contact: Hallie Tibbetts
(hallie.tibbetts at sirensconference.org)

SIRENS ANNOUNCES GUESTS OF HONOR FOR 2010
Conference keynotes to feature women authors

VAIL, CO — November 1, 2009 — The planning team for Sirens, a conference on women in fantasy literature, has announced that Guests of Honor for 2010 will be Holly Black, Marie Brennan, and Terri Windling. Each author's works relate to the 2010 conference theme of "faeries," and each author will present her work and a keynote presentation at Sirens, which will be held October 7–10, 2010, in Vail, Colorado. The keynote presentations, which include two luncheons and a dessert reception, are included with all conference registrations so that all attendees will have the opportunity to hear from the authors, among a variety of expected speakers and presenters.

Holly Black spent her early years in a decaying Victorian mansion where her mother fed her a steady diet of ghost stories and books about faeries. Her first book, Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, was an ALA Top Ten Book for Teens, and received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. Her second teen novel, Valiant, set in the same world, was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Locus Magazine Recommended Read, and a recipient of the Andre Norton Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Holly also set Ironside, which debuted at #5 on the New York Times Bestseller List, in the same world, and has collaborated with Tony DiTerlizzi to create the vast Spiderwick Chronicles, which include two series, companion works, and a movie. Holly's most recent work is editing Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd with Cecil Castellucci; creating the graphic Good Neighbors novels with Ted Naifeh; and writing numerous short stories. Holly currently lives in a Tudor Revival house in Massachusetts with her husband, Theo, and an ever-expanding collection of books.

Marie Brennan holds an undergraduate degree in archaeology and folklore from Harvard and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in anthropology and folklore at Indiana University, which means that people keep giving her things like degrees and fellowship money for studying stuff that's useful to her as a fantasy writer. She rather likes this arrangement. Because she's been in school without interruption since she was five, she doesn't have the list of odd jobs that a writer should, although she did work one summer pruning Christmas trees with a very large serrated knife, which she feels ought to count for something. Her fiction includes Warrior (previously published as Doppelgänger) and Witch (previously published as Witch and Warrior), and her Onyx Court series—Midnight Never Come, In Ashes Lie, and the forthcoming A Star Shall Fall—as well as numerous short stories. She's been writing fantasy since she was nine or ten years old, and blames this fact on Diana Wynne Jones.

Of Terri Windling, Jane Yolen has said, "If there is a single person at the nexus of fantasy literature, it is Terri Windling—as editor, as writer, as painter, as muse." Terri has published over forty books, winning nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and placing on the short list for the Tiptree Award. As a writer, she has published mythic fiction for adults, young adults, and children, and her essays on myth, folklore, and mythic arts have appeared in magazines, art books, and anthologies, as well as reference volumes such as the Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. As an editor, Terri creates and edits series for a variety of publishing houses, and helms numerous anthologies for a variety of readers, often created around myth and fairy tale themes, often in collaboration with Ellen Datlow. Terri also founded The Journal of Mythic Arts with Midori Snyder, which won the 2008 World Fantasy Award. Terri's artwork has appeared in the United States and Europe, including at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art. Born and raised in the United States, Terri now divides her time between Devon, England and Tucson, Arizona, and is married to the English dramatist and writer Howard Gayton.

Registration for the conference is available on the Sirens website at <www.sirensconference.org>. A call for proposals is also available on the Sirens website, and scholars, professionals, and readers are welcome to submit programming proposals for the conference schedule. Sirens is seeking papers, panels, workshops, and roundtable discussions on works by women authors, female characters in fantasy works, and other related topics.

Sirens is presented by Narrate Conferences, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to creating dynamic, innovative educational events for adult scholars, students, educators, librarians, professionals, and fans. Narrate Conferences recently presented Phoenix Rising and Terminus, conferences for adults focusing on the Harry Potter phenomenon, as well as the inaugural year of Sirens in 2009. For more information on Narrate Conferences, including its past and future events, purpose, and staff, please visit <www.narrateconferences.org> or write to (info at narrateconferences.org). For more information about Sirens, please visit <www.sirensconference.org> or write to (help at sirensconference.org).

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2009
Contact: Hallie Tibbetts
(hallie at sirensconference.org)

SIRENS ANNOUNCES GUESTS OF HONOR
Conference keynotes to feature women authors

VAIL, CO — January 28, 2009 — The planning team for Sirens, a conference on women in fantasy literature, has announced that Guests of Honor for its inaugural year will be Kristin Cashore, Tamora Pierce, and Sherwood Smith. All are popular, acclaimed female fantasy authors whose works relate to the conference theme of "warriors." Conference organizers cited strong characters and adventurous plots as the reason the authors were selected. "These women write extraordinary books, and we're thrilled to honor them," noted conference organizer Amy Tenbrink.

Each author will present her work and a keynote presentation at Sirens, which will be held October 1-4, in Vail, Colorado. The keynote presentations, which include two luncheons and a dessert reception, are included with all conference registrations.

Kristin Cashore grew up in the Pennsylvania countryside as the second of four sisters. She has received a bachelor's degree from Williams College in western Massachusetts and a master's from the Center for the Study of Children's Literature at Simmons College in Boston, and she has worked as a dog runner, a packer in a candy factory, an editorial assistant, a legal assistant, and a freelance writer. She has lived in many places (including Sydney, New York City, Boston, London, and Austin), and she currently resides in northern Florida, where her daily activities include walking along the St. Johns River and counting pelicans on the dock. Kristin Cashore's debut novel, Graceling, grew from her daydreams about a girl who possesses extraordinary powers--and who forms a friendship with a boy with whom she is insurmountably incompatible. Her second novel, Fire, is a companion book to Graceling and will be released in fall 2009.

New York Times best-selling author Tamora Pierce began writing while studying psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She has written everything from short stories to novels to scripts that have been featured on National Public Radio, and has worked in many aspects of the publishing industry, including as a manuscript reviewer and editor. Since her days at Penn, she has published several quartets of young adult fantasy books with female heroes (and millions have adventured with Alanna, Daine, Keladry, Aly, and Beka), as well as featured the magic of four children in her Circle books. Her most recent works are the Legend of Beka Cooper series, which begins with Terrier and the forthcoming Bloodhound, and Melting Stones, the latest installment in the Circle series, which is available in both print and audiobook.

Sherwood Smith writes fantasy and science fiction novels and short fiction. Her stories have been finalists for the Nebula and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, and her characters, including Meliara, Wren, and Inda, are fantasy favorites. Her recently published works include Crown Duel (Crown and Court Duet), the Inda sequence, A Stranger to Command, Sasharia en Garde: Once a Princess, Senrid, the Wren series, and stories in Lace and Blade, Firebirds, and Firebirds Soaring: An Anthology of Original Speculative Fiction. In addition to coauthoring the Exordium series with Dave Trowbridge, she has published novels set in others' worlds, including Earth: Final Conflict, Andromeda, L. Frank Baum's Oz, and (with Andre Norton) the Solar Queen and Time Traders universes.

Registration for the conference is already open on the Sirens website at <www.sirensconference.org>. A call for proposals is also available on the Sirens website, and scholars, professionals, and readers are welcome to submit programming proposals for the conference schedule. Sirens is seeking papers, panels, workshops, and roundtable discussions on works by women authors, female characters in fantasy works, and other related topics.

Sirens is presented by Narrate Conferences, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to creating dynamic, innovative educational events for adult scholars, students, educators, librarians, professionals, and fans. Narrate Conferences recently presented Phoenix Rising and Terminus, conferences for adults focusing on the Harry Potter phenomenon. For more information on Narrate Conferences, including its past and future events, purpose, and staff, please visit <www.narrateconferences.org> or write to <info at narrateconferences.org>. For more information about Sirens, please visit <www.sirensconference.org> or write to <help at sirensconference.org>.

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