One day in Romancelandia lasts approximately 1.3 Earth years. Now imagine a week. To help you keep up, we’ve gone through the tweets about last week’s highs (and lows) of representation in romance to bring you our Weekly Romance Update.
These tweets are from or about issues affecting BIPOC, LGBTQIAP+, and/or otherwise underrepresented writers, reviewers, and list curators. If you’re not already, please follow these accounts and be sure to always retweet the original post.
We’ve got a beautiful cover reveal from Suleikha Snyder for TIKKA CHANCE ON ME. If the style looks familiar, that’s because @ONeillJones was one of the artists who helped us celebrate our RITA nominees (and winners!) earlier this year.
This thread calls out books featuring good mental illness rep. If you have any recommendations to add, please do!
@hey_alma wrote a fascinating article about the founders of The Ripped Bodice, the first romance-only bookstore in North America.
Looking for fairytale retellings that aren’t white or cishet? So is our own @MelindaEdits! There are some fantastic recommendations in the thread.
The Pink Heart Society talks to multiple romance authors about how heroines have changed and are leading the charge for equality.
Looking for a new F/F historical? Check out this recommendation list from Smart Bitches. If there’s one you think they missed, go ahead and share the wealth!
The Browne Popular Culture Library highlights Native Americans in romance over time and the problems with Native representation. We’ve got a long way to go, Romancelandia!
Sayantani asks writers from privileged groups to think long and hard about what they’re doing when they write marginalized characters. She also included awesome resources that go into more depth on the subject.
Adriana Herrera talks about #ownvoices in Bustle.
Latinx in Publishing has started a mentoring program for unpubbed or unagented Latinx writers. Applications are due by 11/25!
Corey is asking for Twitter’s favorite 2019 romances featuring trans or non-binary leads. There are some titles on this list that the RSJ Admins will definitely be adding to our TBR lists!
And Wicked Wallflowers is asking for asexual or demisexual leads in romance.
We hope you have a week filled with books and joy and all the good things! And if we have missed anything important, please let us know. Our DMs are open. You can also submit anonymous feedback at bit.ly/RSJfeedback.
If you appreciate the work we do, please consider buying us a ko-fi to help fund our giveaways of romances by underrepresented authors bit.ly/RSJkofi. Thank you!