Romance Writers announce 2013 RITA and Golden Heart Finalists

image: Wiggy! at Wikimedia commons

I've emerged from my writing cave, having finished (this round) of edits, and now I can turn some attention back to the blog!

Today Romance Writers of America announced their annual contest nominees for the Rita award for published romance, and the Golden Heart for unpublished manuscripts.

Click here for a full list of winners.

Or here for a list with covers, courtesy of RT Book Reviews!

The categories for the awards include contemporary, historical, young adult, paranormal romance, romantic suspense, and for the Rita, the last year for a novel with romantic elements.

I was excited to see some familiar names on the list year, having familiarized myself more with the genre after joining RWA last year. Two writers from my Windy City RWA chapter finaled in the Golden Heart (Sonali Dev for Bollywood Bad Boy, and India Powers for Demon's Bane). A writer from the Chicago North chapter is a finalist for the Young Adult category: Erika O'Rourke for Bound, part of a cool trilogy I've become a fan of.

For the Rita Young Adult category, I am so thrilled to see Huntley Fitzpatrick's My Life Next Door, which I reviewed here. (And I loooooved it). As well as Katie McGurty's Pushing the Limits, which caught a lot of attention last year. The fourth entry for YA I hadn't heard of: The Farm by Emily McKay. The Goodreads description makes it seem straight up dystopian without much mention of a romance, but I'm guessing it's there.

Now I'm off to update my reading list with some Rita nominees...