The RITA Award (called the Golden Medallion from 1982 to 1989), presented by the Romance Writers of America (RWA) from 1982 to 2019, was an award for English-language romance fiction. It was named for the RWA's first president, Rita Clay Estrada. After not being awarded in 2020, it was replaced by the Vivian Award, which was awarded once in 2021.
Procedure The RITA Award opened for entries in the fall. Entrants had to supply five printed books by the posted deadline. Each title was judged by five judges during the preliminary round. Finalists were announced in mid-March and winners were announced at the annual award ceremony, held on the last day of the RWA's National Conference, normally in July. Winning authors received a gold statuette while book editors received a plaque.
Controversies In their final years, the RITA and Vivian awards were both at the center of various controversies because of objectionable content and a lack of diversity in the winning works.
2015 For Such a Time controversy In 2015, For Such a Time, written by Kate Breslin and published by Bethany House, was nominated for two RITA Awards in the Best Inspirational Romance and Best First Book categories. The nominations were criticized as antisemitic, because the book was set in Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War II and featured a Jewish prisoner being saved by an SS officer, falling in love with him and converting to Christianity.
2018-2020 diversity controversy The RITA Awards, like the English-language romance fiction industry as a whole, were overwhelmingly dominated by white authors. This caused controversy in 2018 when Alyssa Cole's An Extraordinary Union, a novel about interracial romance during the American Civil War, made no appearance among the RITA Awards finalists despite winning multiple other awards. Instead, all finalists were about white women, of whom all but one fell in love with British aristocrats. In response, the RWA board noted that less than half of 1% of finalists were by Black authors, none had ever won the award, and gave a commitment to improve the diversity of the award. The board issued an apology after the 2019 finalists again underrepresented persons of color or LGBTQ+ persons.
In 2019, Kennedy Ryan became the first Black woman to be awarded a RITA.
RWA cancelled the 2020 RITA Awards after several contestants and judges withdrew due to diversity concerns. A new award, the Vivian, named after Black RWA founder Vivian Stephens, was launched in late 2020.
2021 Vivian Awards controversy The inaugural Vivian Award in 2021 caused further controversy. The "Romance with Religious or Spiritual Elements" category winner At Love’s Command, written by Karen Witemeyer and published by Bethany House, faced criticism of anti-Indigenous racism. The book featured an American soldier as the male protagonist, who had taken part in massacres of Indigenous nations, including the Wounded Knee Massacre, and portrayed Indigenous religious practices as inferior to Christian ones. In response, Sara Whitney, the winner in the Best Mid-length Contemporary Romance category, announced that she would be returning her award in protest, because of "its narrow definition of inspirational romance and discussion of characters seeking redemption from 'crimes against humanity' prove the organization has not listened or learned from its current or former members."
The RWA initially defended the award, writing, "Romance with Religious or Spiritual Elements requires a redemptive arc as a genre convention." It said that no judges had submitted any concerns over the book, but that they would be creating a task force to assess "the overall effectiveness of the contest to include the contest process, rubric, and entry and judging guidelines." A day later, however, the RWA rescinded the award with the following statement: "We cannot in good conscience uphold the decision of the judges in voting to celebrate a book that depicts the inhumane treatment of indigenous people and romanticizes real world tragedies that still affect people to this day."
RITA Award winners