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Sirens Conference

23 Oct, 11 tweets, 7 min read

TALES RETOLD

2012: Sirens interrogated retellings of myths, legends, and fairy tales from around the world, including what they have to say about our own real world. Here are 10 complex retold tales (with more books/info here: sirensconference.org/news/2020/10/s…): 1/

#SirensAtHome

1. ASH by Malinda Lo: “Aisling’s mother died at midsummer. She had fallen sick so suddenly that some of the villagers wondered if the fairies had come and taken her, for she was still young and beautiful. She was buried three days later beneath the hawthorn tree...” #SirensAtHome

2. CIRCE by Madeline Miller: “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist. They called me nymph, assuming I would be like my mother and aunts and thousand cousins. Least of the lesser goddesses, our powers were so modest...” #SirensAtHome

3. GINGERBREAD by Helen Oyeyemi: “Harriet Lee’s gingerbread is not comfort food. There’s no nostalgia baked into it, no hearkening back to innocent indulgences and jolly times at nursery. It is not humble, nor is it dusty in the crumb.” #SirensAtHome

4. MIDNIGHT ROBBER by Nalo Hopkinson: ““Oho. Like it starting, oui? Don’t be frightened, sweetness; is for the best. I go be with you the whole time. Trust me and let me distract you little bit with one anasi story.” #SirensAtHome

5. MY MOTHER SHE KILLED ME, MY FATHER HE ATE ME edited by Kate Bernheimer: “Despite its heft, this collection is a tiny hall of mirrors in the world’s giant house of fairy tales. Fairy tales comprise thousands of stories written by thousands of writers...” #SirensAtHome

6. NEVER LOOK BACK by Lilliam Rivera: “If it’s a Saturday, then two things are true. First, trains heading uptown will forever be late, no matter what. Deadass. It’s as if the MTA decides anyone going past 125th Street must not be worth the trouble.” #SirensAtHome

7. SUMMER OF THE MARIPOSAS by Guadalupe Garcia McCall: “Juanita reacted first. Being fourteen and only second oldest, she didn’t usually take charge. But when she felt the corpse floating beside her, she started pulling Pita out of the water...” #SirensAtHome

8. THE GIRL AND THE GODDESS by Nikita Gill:
“In This Story
There is a girl who is stubborn
And strong-willed and who makes
Mistakes enough to fill an ocean.”
#SirensAtHome

9. THE MERRY SPINSTER by Mallory Ortberg (now Daniel Lavery): “Daughters are as good a thing as any to populate a kingdom with—if you’ve got them on hand. They don’t cost much more than their own upkeep, which you’re on the hook for regardless...” #SirensAtHome

10. THROUGH THE WOODS by Emily Carroll: “When I was little I used to read before I slept at night. And I read by the light of a lamp clipped to my headboard. Stark white and bright, against the darkness of my room. I dreaded turning it off.” #SirensAtHome

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More from @sirens_con

Sirens Conference

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24 Oct

@amytenbrink

We're back again! @amytenbrink welcomes everyone and notes that we're in a liminal space in this very strange year of 2020, which falls between *our* years of discussing Heroes (2019) and Villains (2021).

#SirensAtHome

In 2020, we all feel like we're failing, not doing enough, not being enough -- "Like we've become the villains in our own stories."

But Amy thinks we're all heroes.

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In classic Amy style, she says "fuck that" to the traditional definition of heroism.

What we're doing for ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities -- that is heroic.

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23 Oct

2021: Sirens will challenge what it means to be a villain—and especially of what it means for people of marginalized genders and other identities to so easily be cast as villainous. Here are 10 wicked works (with more books/info here: sirensconference.org/news/2020/10/s…): 1/

#SirensAtHome

1. A FEAST OF SORROWS by Angela Slatter: “My father did not know that my mother knew about his other wives, but she did. It didn’t seem to bother her, perhaps because, of them all, she had the greater independence and a measure of prosperity that was all her own.” #SirensAtHome

2. AMERICAN HIPPO by Sarah Gailey: “Winslow Remington Houndstooth was not a hero. There was nothing within him that cried out for justice or fame. He did not wear a white hat—he preferred his grey one, which didn’t show the bloodstains.” #SirensAtHome

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Sirens Conference

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23 Oct

2019: Sirens considered heroes in all their forms, and explicitly rejected the hypermasculine notions of heroism—and discussed a pantheon of more revolutionary heroes. Here are 10 magnificent heroes works (with more books/info here: sirensconference.org/news/2020/10/s…): 1/

#SirensAtHome

1. A PALE LIGHT IN THE BLACK by K.B. Wagers: “Commander Rosa Martín Rivas pasted another smile onto her face as she wove through the crowds and headed for her ship at the far end of the hangar. She and the rest of the members of Zuma’s Ghost...” #SirensAtHome

2. A SONG BELOW WATER by Bethany C. Morrow: “It feels redundant to be at the pool on a rainy Saturday, even though it’s spring, and even though it’s Portland, but maybe I’m just more of a California snob than I want to be.” #SirensAtHome

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Sirens Conference

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23 Oct

2017: Sirens deconstructed magic and those of marginalized genders who want it or wield it—and how magic is so often an analog for power. Here are 10 magical books of witches, sorcerers, enchanters and more (with more books/info here: sirensconference.org/news/2020/10/s…): 1/

#SirensAtHome

1. A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC by V.E. Schwab: “Kell wore a very peculiar coat. It had neither one side, which would be conventional, nor two, which would be unexpected, but several, which was, of course, impossible.” #SirensAtHome

2. LABYRINTH LOST by Zoraida Córdova: “The second time I saw my dead aunt Rosaria, she was dancing. Earlier that day, my mom had warned me, pressing a long, red fingernail on the tip of my nose, ‘Alejandra, don’t go downstairs when the Circle arrives.’” #SirensAtHome

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23 Oct

2016: Sirens examined lovers and representations of romantic and erotic ideas in speculative spaces, including the notion of taking those things—or not—on your terms. Here are 10 beautiful stories of love (with more books/info here: sirensconference.org/news/2020/10/s…): 1/

#SirensAtHome

1. ANCIENT, ANCIENT by Kiini Ibura Salaam: “Sené. Pregnant Sené. Sené of the tired skin. Sené whose face held a million wrinkles, each one etched deeply as if carved over the course of forty years. Sené whose blood was only twenty-four years young.” #SirensAtHome

2. EMPIRE OF SAND by Tasha Shuri: “Mehr woke up to a soft voice calling her name. Without thought, she reached a hand beneath her pillow and closed her fingers carefully around the hilt of her dagger. She could feel the smoothness of the large opal...” #SirensAtHome

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23 Oct

2015: Sirens analyzed stories of rebels and revolutionaries—and cast a wide net, seeking both traditional fantasy uprisings and more revolutionary rebellions as well. Here are 10 world-shattering tales (with more books/info here: sirensconference.org/news/2020/10/s…): 1/

#SirensAtHome

1. ALIF THE UNSEEN by G. Willow Wilson: “The thing always appeared in the hour between sunset and full dark. When the light began to wane in the afternoon, casting shadows of gray and violet across the stable yard below the tower where he worked...” #SirensAtHome

2. AN ACCIDENT OF STARS by Foz Meadows: “Sarcasm is armour, Saffron thought, and imagined she was donning a suit of it, plate by gleaming, snark-laden plate...’” #SirensAtHome

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