RITA Awards

About the RITA Awards

Year is the year awarded (winners named at the RWA national conference each July; finalists announced that spring, for books published the year before). The RITA ended after 2019; none was given in 2020, and RWA replaced it with the Vivian. Finalists come from RWA's own finalist pages for every year 2006-2019, read from archive.org snapshots (rwanational.org for 2006-2010, rwa.org for 2011-2019) because rwa.org no longer hosts them. Winners come from RWA's live Past RITA Winners page (rwa.org/past-rita-winners); each winner is marked on its finalist row. Repair: that page leaves out the 2009 Contemporary Single Title winner, Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson, so that row cites RWA's archived 2009 winners page. All book categories are kept under the names on each year's finalist page, so names shift as RWA re-cut categories (e.g. Contemporary Single Title, Contemporary Series, Contemporary Romance: Long/Mid-Length/Short, Regency, Traditional, Novel with Strong Romantic Elements, Mainstream Fiction with a Central Romance, Inspirational, Romance with Religious or Spiritual Elements, Young Adult, Erotic, Romance Novella); 2008 'Best Paranormal' and 'Best Young Adult' are written as Paranormal Romance and Young Adult Romance. Golden Heart (unpublished manuscripts) is left out. Novellas published on their own stay in; novellas listed as one story inside a larger book ("Story" in Anthology) are left out, 44 rows across 2006-2019, including the novella winners of 2006-2011. A book that was a finalist in two categories appears once per category. Pen names are given as published (w/a or 'writing as' forms keep the pen name). Expected counts are the book rows on each year's finalist page after those novella exclusions.

Organization: Romance Writers of America. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)