wisepowder: Embattled Houston-based Romance Writers of America cancels 2020 awards

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The Romance Writers of America has canceled the 2020 RITAs, the organization’s annual awards program. The cancellation is the latest public sign of crisis amid a tumultuous month for the Houston-based organization, which has been losing a public relations battle over the diversity of its membership and the content it produces. This week the RWA also received a petition to recall its board president. On Wednesday Renee Ryan, its director-at-large, resigned from the board of directors.To get more news about Read Adult Novels Online For Free, you can visit freewebnovel official website.

Over the past month, a best-selling author was censured, several board members resigned and the future of an organization that represents some 9,000 writers has been thrown into doubt during what should have been a celebratory 40th anniversary year. The RWA describes its mission as advancing “the professional and common business interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy.”

The cancellation was announced Wednesday, the same day HarperCollins Canada and its Harlequin imprint announced they would not attend the RWA’s national conference this year. Craig Swinwood, CEO of the publisher, said it would reevaluate its involvement in 2021.The RWA also announced on Jan. 6 that it has received a recall petition for board president Damon Suede. If the petition is verified, a recall election would take place before Feb. 20.

Signs of discontent in this $1 billion industry began to occur a few years ago. Courtney Milan - the pen name for writer Heidi Bond - had been critical of the organization’s lack of diversity in the past. A Californian with Chinese ancestry, Milan formerly served as an RWA board member and advocated for a more inclusive and diverse RWA.But her August 2019 tweet about a book published more than two decades ago proved a more dramatic catalyst for change than years of advice and advocacy. Milan called “Somewhere Lies the Moon,” a book by author Kathryn Lynn Davis “a racist (expletive) mess” for its portrayal of a half-Chinese heroine. Davis and her publisher filed a complaint with the RWA, which censured Milan last month.

Davis in a recent interview with the Guardian suggested she was urged to file the complaint by the Romance Writers of America, further obscuring an already unclear sequence of events. Early reports also said Davis lost a three-book publishing deal as a result of the controversy; she since clarified interview that a formal contract had not been offered, but rather discussions about a deal had halted.