Award Series: RITA

A wife, mother, and grandma, Yvonne Anderson lives in rural Ohio. She's a former legal secretary, currently a professional Virtual Assistant, and writes a daily Bible study blog. She creates fiction just for fun, but sometimes entertains fantasies about real remuneration.






Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet wasn't the first play ever written in the romance genre. Elizabeth Barrett Browning rehashed old ground when she counted the ways of love in her famous sonnet. The basic Cinderella story appears, in one form or another, in early folk tales from many far-flung cultures.

Perhaps Eve recited the first love story when she told her children how God created her especially for Adam. Indeed, the Bible has a great deal to say about love, but the books of Ruth and The Song of Solomon stand out as classics of great romance literature. In any culture, language or historical setting, rare is the story, poem, song, play or movie in which the theme of love does not course through its veins, giving it life.

Small wonder, then, that today, romantic fiction is a $1.2 billion industry in the U.S. and comprises the largest of the fiction genres. And the Romance Writers of America's awards for excellence in this crowded field represent the heart of it.

According to the RWA, a "romance novel" is defined as containing two essential elements: a central love story, and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. The main plot must concern two people falling in love and struggling to make a relationship work, though any number of subplots may be interwoven through this general theme. Based upon the idea that lovers who struggle for their relationship are rewarded, it leaves the reader feeling good when she comes to the end. "Category" romances are short, released in monthly and in order, with a series number in each title. These are usually published by Harlequin/Silhouette, and are often called Harlequin romances. A "single-title" romance is not part of any numbered series and is usually published by one of approximately ten New York City publishers.

Although the RWA gives a number of related service and industry awards, their annual RITA® is the highest award of excellence for romance fiction. Each year, one winner in each of several categories strides proudly to the podium to accept a golden statuette, similar in appearance to an Oscar and named for the RWA’s first president, Rita Clay Estrada.

The thirteen categories: Best First Book, Best Contemporary Single Title Romance, Best Inspirational Romance, Best Long Contemporary Romance, Best Short Contemporary Romance, Best Long Historical Romance, Best Romantic Novella, Best Paranormal Romance, Best Romantic Suspense, Best Short Contemporary Romance, Best Short Historical Romance, Novel with Strong Romantic Elements, and Best Traditional Romance. In 2007, however, no award will be given for Best Short Contemporary Romance, due to lack of qualifying entries.

Each fall, authors and editors submit more than 1,000 romance novels published that year. The judges, all published romance writers themselves, begin the process of critiquing and ranking the entrants. Finalists are named in mid-spring of the following year, and the winners are announced at the "RITA® and Golden Heart® Awards Ceremony and Gala" on the final night of RWA's Annual National Conference in mid-July.

Have you polished up a romance that you're sure is a winner, but you haven't yet found a publisher? If so, you might be interested in the Golden Heart® award mentioned above. Entries are made by the writers themselves. A panel of five RWA members reads and rates the entries, and the finalists are judged by romance editors. Because of the wide exposure winning novels receive, the manuscripts are usually sold by the authors for publishing purposes. For more information, check out the RWA website at http://www.rwanational.org,/ , or you may contact Nicole Kennedy at RWA Public Relations at nkennedy@rwanational.org.

Just about everybody loves a romance, and most of us love a happy ending. What could be a happier ending than to hear your name announced at next July's conference