05/29/2020

RWA Announces New Award to Recognize Industry Diversity

Following accusations of racist behaviors, one organization is implementing massive changes

Few know better than the Romance Writers of America (RWA) that breaking up is hard to do. But, sometimes, you have to call it quits. Such is the case with RWA’s RITA awards, which have been around since 1982. RWA announced recently the RITA will be replaced with The Vivian award.

“We hope that The Vivian brings a contest of the best of the best that is guided by diversity, equity, inclusion, and access,” said RWA President Alyssa Day. “We can’t have a contest that is the best of the best, if it’s not inclusive of all romance writers.”

And while the RITA awards were part of RWA for nearly 40 years, they were also emblematic of the diversity problems the organization faced. A black author didn’t win in any of the RITA’s 13 categories until 2019. Then, back in December, RWA’s equity and inclusion problems came to a head after an outcry among members over RWA’s sanction of Chinese-American author Courtney Milan for saying on Twitter that a fellow author’s novel was racist. By February, RWA’s entire board, president, and executive director had resigned, and an independent review later determined RWA needed to address several issues that led to Milan’s sanction.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.