THE VIVIAN LAUNCHES!

There is, of course, big news this week that affects every aspect of our lives as Americans and citizens of the interconnected world. But I won’t go on at length about that except to congratulate President-elect Joseph Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris on their electoral win. I have more to say about it on my personal blog here, if you’re inclined to check it out.

For a more narrow, writerly bit of news, this week (November 10) marked the opening of the completely revamped and renamed Vivian Contest for both published and unpublished romance, sponsored by the Romance Writers of America®. According to the RWA® website, “The Vivian recognizes excellence in romance writing and showcases author talent and creativity. We celebrate the power of the romance genre with its central message of hope--because happily ever afters are for everyone.”

The new Vivian Contest needs YOU!

You may remember from my earlier post that the old RITA contest went through an extensive overhaul after many years of nominees and winners that too often reflected a single, exclusive romantic perspective—that of white, cis-gendered, heterosexual and able-bodied authors and protagonists. There were no objective criteria for judging, which only reinforced these stereotypes, and categories were limited, too, discouraging participation from writers in our own science fiction romance world, who were consistently forced to compete in the Paranormal category. The old Golden Heart contest for unpublished writers had been eliminated altogether, leaving newbies with nowhere to go.

In the new Vivian Contest, judges will undergo mandatory training both for diversity and equity issues and to learn the new objective criteria for judging. They will be required to adhere to the rubrics for judging established by the contest committee (which were arrived at by a thorough and lengthy process with the RWA® membership). They will have more freedom to choose the subgenres and sensuality levels across the spectrum they feel comfortable judging and will be matched with entries based on the information about those sensuality levels provided by the authors themselves. (So, no outraged “Did Not Finish” scores from judges who unwittingly got spicy novels in their packets when they secretly preferred cozy contemporaries. And it’s more likely judges with some familiarity with SFR will judge SFR.)

The Paranormal category has been renamed to the more inclusive Speculative Romance category and will accept entries in three lengths (Long, Mid, and Short), as Historical and Contemporary categories have for years. This will not only give authors in this category more opportunities to win but will also expand the welcome for digital-only authors, who tend to write at the shorter lengths.

Unpublished manuscripts (and authors) will be judged under the new Most Anticipated Romance category. This is meant to replace the Golden Heart contest, and though it’s a compromise that leaves many veterans of the Golden Heart disappointed, at least there is some acknowledgement of the role of RWA® in nurturing newbie writers. It should be noted that there is an option for finalists in this category to have their entries made available to editors and agents on RWA®’s Qualifying Markets or Eligible Agents lists. So that’s something.

Currently there are no fees for the first book entered in the Vivian Contest! What have you got to lose? The initial cap for entries is set at 750. Once that cap has been met, second entries may be accepted. Those second books will be charged a fee of $50 for RWA® members, $100 for nonmembers. A final cap for entries will be set on November 23. Click here for more details.

Note that if you are interested in judging, you do not have to be an RWA® member to do so. Nonmember authors, critics, reviewers, librarians and booksellers are all eligible with certain restrictions. Deadline for judge signup is November 20. Click here for more information.

Cheers, Donna