RWA Winners on Lists of Bests

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Romance Writers of America’s RITA® is the highest award of excellence in the genre of romance fiction. The golden statuette, named after RWA’s first president, Rita Clay Estrada, is a symbol for the very best that romance fiction has to offer each year.

RITAs are awarded to the romance novels that received the highest scores from panels of romance-author judges. Here’s how the process works:

Every fall, more than 1,000 romance novels are entered in the RITA contest by authors and editors. Romance-author judges begin the process of critiquing and ranking the entrants. In mid-spring approximately 75 books are named the year’s "RITA finalists." The finalist books go on to be further scrutinized by judges. In July — when RWA hosts its National Annual Conference — the judges’ marks are tabulated to reveal the top score getters. The names of the RITA-winning books are kept secret until RWA’s "RITA and Golden Heart Awards Ceremony and Gala," which is a black-tie event held on the final night of RWA’s Conference. At the awards ceremony — an event similar to the Oscars — the winners are announced and, amid excitement and tears, the winning authors take to the stage to accept their RITA statuettes and to make acceptance speeches.

One RITA award is given out in each of 13 different categories. The RITA categories were established to compare books with similar lengths and settings. For example, shorter contemporary-set romances are entered in the "Best Short Contemporary" category. Other RITA categories group competing books by story element. The "Best Inspirational Romance" category is for romances that contain spiritual elements; the "Best Paranormal Romance" category is for romances that contain science-fiction elements. In the instance that a particular category does not have enough entries, fewer than 13 RITAs are given, but this rarely happens.

RWA is pleased to announce its yearly RITA finalists in mid-spring every year, and the 13 big RITA-winning books the last week in July. Throughout the year, RITA-winning authors enjoy the added promotional value associated with earning a RITA, as well as the respect and acclaim of their writing peers. The sister contest to RWA’s RITA is the Golden Heart contest; facilitated and judged in a similar fashion, the Golden Heart is for unpublished romance-novel manuscripts