[ The Romance Writers of America is again embroiled in controversy
after giving its Vivian Award to Karen Witemeyer’s At Love’s
Command, a historical romance observers say glorifies the genocide of
Lakota people at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

ROMANCE WRITERS OF AMERICA RESCIND AWARD FOR LAKOTA GENOCIDE
REDEMPTION NARRATIVE  
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Steve Ammidown
August 26, 2021
Library Journal
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_ The Romance Writers of America is again embroiled in controversy
after giving its Vivian Award to Karen Witemeyer’s At Love’s
Command, a historical romance observers say glorifies the genocide of
Lakota people at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. _

Mass grave of Lakota dead — after the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.,

 

Fresh off a year that saw a bubbling over of long-standing issues
around racism, the cancellation of its marquee awards, multiple board
shake-ups, and the departure of two executive directors and multiple
staff, the Romance Writers of America (RWA) has again found itself
embroiled in controversy
[[link removed]].
This time, the association gave one of its new Vivian awards to _At
Love’s Command_ by Karen Witemeyer, a historical romance that most
observers saw as glorifying the genocide of Lakota people at the
Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. For librarians, this never-ending storm
of controversies raises questions about whether RWA’s awards should
be considered a useful tool for collection development or readers’
advisory when it comes to the romance genre.

The genre has long struggled with a lack of diversity, with publishers
for years refusing to print the stories of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors,
or only doing so in ways that segregated those stories from the rest
of their romance lines. Since its founding in 1980 the RWA has  also
struggled to make space for authors who were not cisgender, straight,
white, Christian, and abled. Despite having an initial board that
included Vivian and Barbara Stephens, both Black women, and Celina
Rios Mullan, a Latina woman, within two years RWA’s board of
directors would be entirely white and remain that way for more than a
decade. It wasn’t until 2002 that Shirley Hailstock would become the
group’s first Black president. The organization’s previous marquee
award, the RITA, created in 1982, did not see a Black author win until
2019. In 2005, members of the board used the organization’s
magazine, _Romance Writer’s Report, _to distribute a survey
intended to limit RWA’s definition of romance to one man and one
woman [[link removed]], which a
later board apologized for in 2016
[[link removed]].
And these are just the problems that made the public eye; for years,
in forums public and private, members shared stories of
microaggressions and outright racist treatment they experienced at RWA
events and meetings.

While the latter half of the 2010s saw the organization make some
progress in addressing the concerns of authors of color as well as
LGBTQIA+ members, in December of 2019 that hard work started to fall
apart. It was revealed that the group intended to censure Chinese
American author Courtney Milan, reportedly for her comments about a
fellow author’s book being a “racist mess.” The ensuing months
of uproar, summarized best by Jezebel author Kelly Faircloth as a
“spectacular implosion
[[link removed]],
[[link removed]]”
[[link removed]] resulted
in the resignation of the group’s first executive director as well
as her hand-picked successor, and the resignation of most of the board
of directors. The RITA awards were scrapped for 2020, and the group
announced that a new award named for founder Vivian Stephens
[[link removed]] would
be rolled out in 2021. It would keep most of the original contest
categories, but with a new approach to judging that the RWA said would
result in a a more equitable playing field for authors of color as
well as for other historically excluded authors, including LGBTQIA+
authors of all backgrounds.

When the first class of Vivian finalists were announced in
April, several observers flagged
[[link removed]] _At
Love’s Command_
[[link removed]] as
a concerning choice
[[link removed]] in
the “Romance with Religious or Spiritual Elements” (also known as
“inspirational”) category. Karen Witemeyer’s book opens in the
midst of the Wounded Knee Massacre as the male protagonist Matt
Hanger, an army captain, describes the Lakota people he and his men
have slaughtered (including a child who Hanger shoots on-page) as
having provoked the attack through their defiance of the army’s
orders. As the book continues, Hanger finds redemption through his
Bible and the love of Dr. Josephine Burkett. Commenters argued that,
while many romance protagonists have moral failings, genocide is not
typically one of them. Despite objections, the book continued in the
contest and was named the winner of the Vivian Award for its category
on August 1.

When Witemeyer’s book was announced as the winner, online backlash
was swift and fierce. Those who had been trying to raise the alarm for
months were now joined by voices within and outside of the romance
world decrying the book. On the Monday after the awards, RWA Board
President LaQuette released a statement
[[link removed]] acknowledging
the criticism, but defending the use of redemption narratives in the
religious or spiritual elements category, arguing that the subgenre
requires that “the character can’t be redeemed by human means;
only through their spiritual/religious awakening can they find
redemption for their moral failings and or crimes against humanity.”
The inclusion of “crimes against humanity” in LaQuette’s
statement immediately raised questions, as the term does not
appear in RWA’s own definition
[[link removed]] of
the inspirational subgenre. In addition, some pointed out that
redemption is not a feature of all religious and spiritual belief
systems (it also does not appear in the Vivians category description)
and that LaQuette’s emphasis on requiring it could exclude
non-Christian narratives.

The day following the statement from LaQuette, the RWA Board issued a
separate statement
[[link removed]] apologizing
for the controversy and announcing that they were rescinding the award
for Witemeyer’s book. As of the writing of this piece, no winner for
the category is listed on RWA’s website.

It’s worth pointing out that this wasn’t the first time a
genocidal male main character was featured in the “Romance with
Religious or Spiritual Elements” category. In 2015, Kate
Breslin’s _For Such a Time__, _about the love between a Nazi
concentration camp guard and a Jewish prisoner, was nominated and
also drew strong condemnation from the romance community
[[link removed]]. _For
Such a Time_ was also nominated for “Best First Book,” but did
not win either award.

Nor is this the first time that problematic narratives involving
Native Americans have featured in the romance genre. One of the most
popular of the romance subgenres in the 1980s and 1990s was the
“Indian Romance,” which typically involved one white and one
Native main character in a story that—while treated as romance in
the industry at the time—often included kidnapping and/or rape, in
the 19th-century American West. Romance fan magazine _Romantic
Times_ (later renamed _RT Book Reviews_ before being shuttered in
2018) included the category in its annual awards, presenting a “Best
Indian Romance” award from 1984-1993.

Given all of this, are awards given by the Romance Writers of America
a good tool for collection development, as other genre related awards
are? Many notable authors skip the contest altogether because of the
contest’s reputation for snubbing authors of color, the cost to
enter, or simply because they are not RWA members. Additionally, the
contest was historically judged by authors who had entered it,
although this has changed somewhat with the new Vivian Awards
structure.

At the very least, the Vivians should be taken with a grain of salt
until further notice. In their place, librarians can turn to awards
like the Ribbies
[[link removed]],
sponsored by romance bookstore The Ripped Bodice and judged by a panel
of romance bloggers, librarians, and social media influencers, or The
Swoon Awards [[link removed]], organized for the
first time last year and voted on by readers. Additionally, blogs
like Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
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resource for reviews and new releases. Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
also has an excellent readers’ advisory tool in its Book Finder
[[link removed]], which allows for
searching by tropes, subgenres, and archetypes among other categories.

 

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