One of my favorite conventions is Sirens, which is focused on women in fantasy literature. It’s small, friendly, exciting, and has a strong YA presence. This year I’ll be attending it for the third time, and I’m really excited — especially because this will be the very first time that I go there to present a paper:
“You Who Read, Judge”: Storytelling in Till We Have Faces
Many first-person novels use the conceit that the book itself is being written by the narrator. Fewer make that act of writing an integral part of the plot. In C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces, Orual’s telling of her own story transforms her, as she comes to understand how she has been telling stories to control others and justify herself all her life. Her journey becomes an exploration of the ways in which stories are inherently participatory and transformative—and sometimes redemptive.