Phoenix Rising

Can you believe it's been almost three years since we descended on New Orleans with cloaks and wands? I can't. (In short, we miss you!) Today I have two news items that Phoenix Rising attendees might find of interest--one Potter-related and the other for fantasy readers and writers.

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We're pleased to announce that the compendium from Terminus, titled Terminus: Collected Papers on Harry Potter, 7-11 August 2008, is now available. E-mail announcements are winging their way to you now, but inevitably, some owls will get lost, so we're spreading the word here too.

We greatly appreciated your patience with us as we worked on publishing the compendium, and we hope that you'll enjoy the final product. Many presenters contributed their analyses and articles, and the book includes perspectives on Harry Potter as part of the curriculum, an analysis of the wizarding world's legal system, criticism of gender roles in the series, sets of questions from roundtable discussions, and many additional essays. You can review the table of contents by visiting the Terminus compendium page here: http://www.terminus2008.org/compendium/

You can order a copy of the Terminus compendium via the link above, and as other retail outlets include the book in their catalogs, we'll update our listings. At present, we've made the compendium available through our print-on-demand outlet, Lulu, though we expect it to be available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and others at a later date. In the meantime, if you purchase through Lulu before May 31, 2010, and use the coupon code FLOWERS at checkout, you'll receive 10% off the compendium's price.

Thank you again to all of the compendium's contributors. We hope that you'll enjoy the collection as much as we have! If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail us at info@narrateconferences.org.

Finally, I wanted to remind you that Sirens, a conference about women in fantasy (as readers, writers, and characters), is celebrating its second year this October in Vail, Colorado. Our guests this year include Marie Brennan, Holly Black, and Terri Windling. Programming proposals will be accepted through May 10, and we'd love to have you in attendance. For more information, the website at http://www.sirensconference.org has registration, travel, and event details.

In October 2009, Narrate Conferences will present Sirens, the first in an annual series of conferences focused on women in fantasy literature: women authors, women professionals, even women characters. The conference was inspired by the daring adventures of heroines and the brilliant works of women fantasy authors--and we hope that you’ll join us in Vail, Colorado next fall.

Sirens will be a smaller conference than our Harry Potter offerings have been, so everyone has the opportunity to discuss and debate, and we hope that Sirens will be equal parts scholarly examination, networking weekend, professional workshop and fan convention. Like our Potter conferences, Sirens will be attendee-driven: attendees will propose and present our programming, teach our classes and host our informal programs, and we hope that their viewpoints and discussion will make Sirens truly outstanding.

For more information, please visit the Sirens website, join our LiveJournal community at sirenscon or visit Narrate Conferences’ LiveJournal at narrate_blog to learn more about why we chose a conference focused on discussing and celebrating women in fantasy literature.

Those of you who are subscribed to one of the Phoenix Rising, Terminus, or Narrate Conferences newsletters, as well as those of you who have registered for either Phoenix Rising or Terminus, have already heard the news: The Phoenix Rising compendium is now available! You can find out more information about the included papers and presentations and how to obtain a copy here. Thank you again to all the presenters who contributed!

New footage from Phoenix Rising is available through Borders! Click here for more information and links to see some man (wizard?) on the street interviews, Quidditch, and wizard rock.

(The panel is now online! Click here for more information.)

If you're a Borders Rewards Member, you might have already seen this news in your Borders Weekly Shortlist e-mail! Featured this week was "HPTV" -- a book club recorded at Phoenix Rising with fans talking about the Harry Potter books. You can stream the video or download it to watch offline at http://www.bordersmedia.com/harrypotter/bookclub/default.asp.

Cheers!