If you’re a member of the Romance Writers of America, you’ve
probably heard about the controversy surrounding the RITA Award. The lack of
representation of minorities and LGBTQ authors and stories has been a problem
for years. Now it seems that RWA’s
leadership is making the move to institute some much-needed changes in the
judging procedures, and “other issues in the contest.” They are currently looking
for input from their membership.
Here’s what I think: If we’re going to do a proper remodel,
then we need to gut the kitchen to the studs. Yes, inclusiveness of
marginalized groups is without a doubt our top priority. I’m one hundred
percent behind that mission, and have stated so to the board.
But there’s another issue I’d love to see resolved, and that
is the lumping of Sci-fi Romance, Fantasy Romance, etc. under the Paranormal category
umbrella.
SFR is not Paranormal. Fantasy Romance is not Paranormal. These
genres have different readerships, and very little cross over. A reader who
digs werewolves and vampires isn’t very likely to pick up a book about aliens
in space…unless those aliens happen to be werewolf or vampire aliens.
So why is SFR and Fantasy still being tossed into an arena
where there’s next to no traction for them? And shouldn’t PNR books be
judged against other PNR, especially in their own category?
Recently, another SFR author and I got our heads together
and drafted a letter to the RWA. We decided to make a template available to
other PNR, SFR, Fantasy, UF, etc. authors who are members of RWA and in favor
of this change. You are welcome to copy and paste this letter in whole or in
part, make any changes to reflect your own thoughts and ideas on how to proceed,
and send it to the RWA board
as soon as possible.
Now is the time speak up on any issues you’d like to see
changed with the RITA Awards. We hope by posting this letter, you are inspired to
also speak out, because the board is listening now.
Dear RWA,
I whole-heartedly support changes within the RWA RITA Awards that
will level the playing field for authors and characters of color and LGBTQ+
authors and characters. In addition to that, since RWA is looking at a revamp
of the entire awards program, I suggest an additional change to make the
competition fairer for ALL authors.
In my humble opinion, RWA has an overall challenge with diversity.
For many years, as a science fiction romance author, I've felt I was an outlier
within the organization. From my perspective, RWA seems to view its membership
in three groups--those who write Contemporary Romance, those who write
Historical Romance, and those who write "Everything Else." In
discussions with my peers, the consensus is that we "EE" authors
would also like to receive more equal representation within the organization.
Please consider the structure of the RITA Awards
Paranormal category. While Contemporary has three distinct categories based on
length, and Historical Romance has two, the Paranormal category is a
“conglomerate” of many different subgenres. This category forces paranormal
romance, fantasy romance, and science fiction romance (et al) authors to
compete against each other in a category that covers a very broad spectrum,
with very little cross-over readership between them.
Splitting this enormous generic category into
smaller, more subgenre-friendly categories will encourage a greater number of
authors to submit knowing their books will be judged against similar works.
This would help level the playing field for “EE” authors of diverse
romance subgenres.
I'm aware this situation has been broached with RWA by many
members over several years, and the answer from RWA has always been that there
aren't enough entries to support a divided category. Please reconsider this in
comparison to the number of entries received for other small categories, such
as Religious/Spiritual Elements and Young Adult. To my knowledge, the
conglomerate Paranormal category has always received substantially more entries.
Since the overall structure of the RITA is being
examined, I propose breaking the Paranormal category into three distinct
subcategories:
· Fantasy Romance (e.g.
sorcerers, wizards, faeries, elves, fantasy world building, etc.)
· Paranormal Romance (e.g.
vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, angels, demons, mermaids, shapeshifters,
etc.)
· Science Fiction Romance (e.g. aliens, space opera, steampunk, futuristic, time
travel, dystopian elements, etc.)
And then, if there aren't enough
entries to justify one of these as an individual category, combine it with the
most appropriate alternate division.
Thank you for your careful attention and
consideration of this matter, which affects a large number of "EE"
authors within your membership.
Sincerely,
USA Today Bestselling Author, Lea Kirk, loves to transport her readers to other worlds with her sci-fi romances. When she’s not busy writing about the blue and green aliens of her Prophecy series, she’s hanging out with her hubby, five kids (the nerd herd), and spoiled Dobie mix puppy.
She is currently working on two short stories and the fourth book in her series.
