Sirens has a mission: to provide a welcoming space for our attendees to discuss gender and fantasy literature. As part of that mission, we specifically craft Sirens to include and amplify the many brilliant voices of our attendees. Our greatest hope is that these voices will represent a broad range of perspectives, experiences, and identities: readers, scholars, librarians, educators, publishing professionals, and authors, of course, but also individuals of different genders, sexualities, races, religions, and abilities.

This year, because of the generosity of the Sirens community, we raised the funds necessary to provide sixteen scholarships—a record number! To everyone who donated, thank you. Thank you for your financial commitment to our community and for helping make Sirens possible for certain individuals who are both critical to our conversations and who sometimes find it difficult to attend without additional support.

Each scholarship includes both a Sirens registration and a round-trip Sirens Shuttle ticket. The sixteen scholarships will be allocated as follows: four to people of color, four for exemplary programming proposals, four to those with financial hardships, and four to librarians, educators, and publishing professionals (which may be anyone from an editor to an agent to a publicist to a cover designer to a bookseller).

Sabrina Chin, January 17, 1981–October 25, 2019

This year, we are also offering the 2020 Sabrina Chin “Braver Than You Think” Memorial Scholarships. Sabrina Chin co-chaired Sirens for a number of years before her passing in 2019, and her family has funded these scholarships to help us continue her work with Sirens. All first-time Sirens attendees and first-time presenters who receive one of our 2020 Sirens scholarships are eligible for these scholarships as well. Each of these scholarships will provide $500 for the recipient to use for expenses directly related to attending or presenting at Sirens, from travel to Sirens presentation research materials.

If you need assistance, we hope you’ll consider applying for a scholarship. We designed this program specifically to help additional voices join our conference and our community—and your voice makes Sirens more thoughtful, more vibrant, and just plain better. To apply, please visit our scholarships page.