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But the chaos was the culmination of a long-simmering culture war within the insular world of romance publishing, one that played out for years through microaggressions, attempts to censor queer authors and storylines, and the refusal to recognize the work of authors of color.Īnd the infighting wasn’t just an entertaining squabble. “Who knew that romance novelists were so wild?” was the general response. So to those observing on social media, the spectacle of one romance figure after another toppling like dominoes appeared to be coming out of nowhere. There’s an unkind stereotype that romance novels are for sex-starved spinsters with too many cats. It was a wildly convoluted controversy that involved secret backroom committees, public denunciations, and no small amount of schadenfreude from popcorn-munching onlookers in publishing and media. RWA imploded in a spectacular public meltdown, an imbroglio that led to the resignation of the president, executive director, and, eventually, the entire board. And in December 2019, all those years of slights, of aggressions both micro and macro, of implicit and explicit bias, would finally become impossible to ignore.
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So had the queer members, and the poly members, and everyone else who didn’t quite fit into the traditional romance mold. But Huguley says the message was clear: As a black woman, she didn’t belong at that awards reception.įor years, RWA’s members of color had felt stigma and hostility like that experienced by Huguley and Malone they’d felt unwanted, disrespected, or simply shut out. Huguley politely showed the staffer her finalist ribbon, and the woman stepped aside without apology or explanation to allow Huguley entry. “She was in the mind to be a doorkeeper.” “I guess she didn’t think about how that might have been taken,” she said, making the kind of understatement Southern women use when they are most angry. But when she recalled her encounter, her tone suddenly went arctic. Generally, Huguley talks like a proper Southern lady, her voice warm and easily friendly. She did not expect to be treated as though she were an intruder. Huguley had done all of that, so she expected to be welcomed into the reception. They also have to RSVP for the reception and wear special ribbons with their convention badges.
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“She sort of stepped across my path and asked me if she could help me,” Huguley recalls.Īll finalists send a picture of themselves to the organization. But when Huguley tried to walk into the Atlanta hotel bar where the reception was being held, she says, an organization staff member stood in her way. The Golden Heart, which is separate from the RITAs, recognizes work by unpublished authors, and Piper was the only black finalist nominated for any of RWA’s awards that year (for her historical romance A Champion’s Heart).Īn exclusive reception for award finalists is a staple of RWA’s annual national conference. In 2013, Huguley, an English professor and romance novelist, was up for a Golden Heart Award. But six years earlier, fellow RWA member Piper Huguley had experienced something remarkably similar. It was the kind of small ugliness that would be tempting to brush away as a one-time incident coming from a single bad actor. “I didn’t know we needed two token winners.” “Oh,” she says she heard one of them say. She was still basking in that joy when she overheard another group of attendees talking.
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“It was this great culmination of all this work that had been done for authors of color to finally get recognition, especially for these two,” Malone says. Malone (no relation) were winners that year - the first black authors to win RITAs - and all three were celebrating the milestone. Malone, who is black, was there for the reception for the RITAs, the annual awards ceremony for published authors. It was the summer of 2019, and Malone was attending the national conference for Romance Writers of America, romance publishing’s powerful trade organization. Romance novelist Nana Malone felt like she was back in high school - surrounded by mean girls. Part of the Romance Issue of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.