I’m excited to say that when I attend Sirens Conference this October, I will be on two panels:
Portal Fantasy: Threat or Menace?
Rosamund Hodge, Cora Anderson, Rachel Manija Brown
Everybody knows about portal fantasy, where characters from the “real world” cross into a separate fantasy world. It is a classic trope that still draws readers—the Chronicles of Narnia have never been out of print. And yet new portal fantasies are very seldom published, and many agents and editors have said that they’re unmarketable. What exactly is this subgenre, and why is it so loved and so shunned at the same time? What new stories does it still have to offer?
A Tourist’s Guide to the Undiscovered Country
Rosamund Hodge, Cora Anderson, Kendare Blake, Joy Kim
From The Descent of Inanna to Dante’s Divine Comedy to Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Farthest Shore, journeys to the underworld/afterlife have been a staple of fantastic literature. This panel will discuss both the ancient tradition of underworld journeys and how this tradition is used in modern fantasy. Why does this theme have such an enduring appeal? How do modern novels use and transform it?