Lovers.

Lovers.

Loooooooooooovers.

Every year, Sirens is dedicated to the diverse, remarkable women of fantasy literature. We welcome programming on any topic related to that impossibly deep well of possibilities. We discuss a thousand books by a thousand authors and how we, as readers, engage with these fantastic works. We sell a thousand fantasy books by and about women.

But every year, we also celebrate a specific type of remarkable woman. One year, warriors, another faeries. Then monsters, or revolutionaries. These themes help spark our collective imagination, for everything from presentations to bookstore inventory, informal programs to artwork. They help us discover the breadth of women’s representations in fantasy literature, and the tremendous panoply of real-world women we know. They enrich our conversations, and deepen our connections to fantasy literature, each other, and ourselves.

And speaking of connections, our 2016 theme is lovers.

First kisses. Last loves. Midnight rendezvous. Forbidden assignations. Thousand-bell weddings. Discovering sex. Re-discovering sex. Having the best sex of your life.

Love and sex and tumult and desire and falling and soaring and comfort and wisdom and loss and grief and life-changing connections.

Because in fantasy literature, as in the real world, whom you choose to love—for all meanings of “love”—changes you, and helps you change the world.

Regardless of gender. Regardless of sexuality. Regardless of age, or race, or ability. Regardless of whether you have dragon wings or mermaid scales or selkie skin or wolf fur.

This year, we invite you—all of you—to join in our conversations about women in fantasy literature: our programming, our discussions, our debates, our book talks. And as we celebrate love, in its many forms, sometimes serious, sometimes fun, sometimes devastating, we hope that you’ll help us explore fantasy literature’s many, many depictions, from romance and first love, to adventure and erotica.

Because just like women as warriors, and women as monsters, and women as revolutionaries are vital aspects of everything we are, so are women as lovers.