The 2011 RITA awards

Yesterday in NYC, the RWA hosted its annual RITA awards.

From the RWA website:

The purpose of the RITA® contest is to promote excellence in the romance
genre by recognizing outstanding published romance novels and novellas.

The award itself is a golden statuette named after RWA's first president, Rita Clay Estrada, and has become the symbol for excellence in published romance fiction.


I am so pleased and honored and humbled to announce that THE IRON KING won the 2011 RITA award for best YA romance of the year.

I was at Kung Fu class when I got the news, and my phone exploded a little bit, with tweets and congrats coming in like crazy. I wish I could have replied to them all. I will try now. So, thank you, everyone. Thank you for your support through this amazing journey. Thank you to the awesome people at Harlequin and HarlequinTEEN; everything you've done for me has been spectacular. To my rock star agent Laurie and all the wonderful people on the inside, Adam, Amy, Jayne, Giselle, and everyone else. And to my awesome editor, Natashya, for making the dream happen. Thank you all so much.

But most of all, thank you to all my readers and fans of the Iron Fey, Meghan, Ash, Puck, and Grimalkin. Your support has taken this series to places I never thought possible. I wouldn't be anywhere without you guys. My sincere thanks for everything.

To learn more about RWA, the Rita awards, and this year's winners, check out RWA's website

Thanks again,

Julie