Should RWA Change Its Name?
Romance Writers of America started in Houston, Texas. Since I grew up in Texas, I’m very aware that Texas once was an independent country. Some people think it still is.
It’s a wonder that the organization isn’t Romance Writers of Texas. In fact with all the books about cowboys (that I hear is a trend that’s coming back in a big way), maybe it should be.
I have friends in several countries who I see once a year at the RWA National Conference, so I know that the organization is international. I belong to the Outreach Chapter, which was established for members who didn’t have a local chapter. It was the first Internet chapter.
Recently at the conference in San Francisco I was reminded just how international the group really is. At one dinner, I sat between someone from Australia and someone from New Zealand.
At the Alcatraz tour, our group consisted of an Australian, a US citizen who lives in Brazil, a woman from Sweden who lived in England for two years, and three of us from different parts of the US.
Even the largest publisher of romance novels has headquarters in England and Canada. How can we be so exclusive in our name? Our books celebrate diversity while building relationships between our characters.
Do we as a group involved in confirming relationships want to alienate part of our membership? How do the non-US residents feel about the name?
RWA has been a prominent writer’s group for almost 30 years. We can’t change the initials, but I think we should definitely change the name. Here are a few suggestions.
- Romance Writers Association
- Romance Writers Always
- Romance Writers Anonymous (just kidding)
What do you say? Should we start a movement to change our name?
