The RNA each year celebrates the achievements and potential of their own members, through the Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers, the Katie Fforde Bursary, and the Elizabeth Goudge Prize.

With the Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers, the New Writers’ Scheme aims to encourage fresh talent in the writing of romances and novels with romantic elements, in every genre from historical to futuristic, with characters and love stories that reflect the diversity of readers everywhere. Any NWS manuscript that is subsequently published as a debut novel is eligible for the Joan Hessayon Award, provided that the author has remained in membership of the RNA.

The Award is generously sponsored by Dr David Hessayon, in honour of his late wife, Joan, who was a longstanding member of the RNA and a great supporter of the New Writers’ Scheme, and is judged by a panel of experienced RNA members and industry professionals.

The contenders for this award are all authors whose debut novels have been accepted for publication after passing through the RNA's New Writers’ Scheme. Each year, unpublished authors are invited to join the scheme, which features conference sessions and opportunities to network, meeting industry professionals and other authors. They are also invited to submit their work in progress for a critique by one of the association's published authors. 

Commenting on the contenders for 2021, RNA president Katie Fforde said: “One of the most exciting times in the RNA year is when the Joan Hessayon candidates are announced. These are the writers who have come through our New Writers’ Scheme and have achieved publication. The standard is always high and these ‘new writers’ often go on to become bestsellers. I know I’m not the only one who feels extremely proud of them all. They feel like our own and we all get huge pleasure from their success.”

The award will be announced on 18th September at the RNA's York Afternoon Tea at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in Aldwark. It is judged by author and chair of Authors North Rhoda Baxter, Laura Longrigg of MBA Literary Agents and Sara-Jade Virtue, fiction brand development director at Simon & Schuster.

The shortlist in full:

Caroline Day with Hope Nicely’s Lessons for Life (Zaffre)

Penny Hampson with The Unquiet Spirit (Crooked Cat/Darkstroke)

Helga Jensen with Twice in a Lifetime (Hera)

Clare Marchant with The Secrets of Saffron Hall (Avon)

Lucy Morris with The Viking Chief’s Marriage Alliance (Mills & Boon Historical)

Nancy Peach with Love Life (One More Chapter)

Zelah Roberts with Midsummer Man (Totally Entwined)

Anni Rose with Recipe for Mr Right (Choc Lit Publishing)

Kate G Smith with You've Got Mail (Orion Dash)

Suzanne Snow with The Cottage of New Beginnings (Canelo)

Victoria Springfield with The Italian Holiday (Orion Dash)

As well as this award, there are nine categories for the Romantic Novel Awards to be presented in March 2022 for books published in 2021 are these are:

  • The Contemporary Romantic Novel Award: For stories about the here and now, where romance forms a substantive part of the story; any novel set predominantly in the last 50 years. Please also consider the following categories to see if the book you are entering might fit into another more suitable one.
  • The Historical Romantic Novel Award: For stories set in the past showing historic worlds, where romance forms a substantive and crucial part of the story. Romantic novels predominantly set pre-1980 .
  • The Romantic Comedy Novel Award: For romantic novels which are consistently funny. Can be set in any time period.
  • The Fantasy Romantic Novel Award: For romantic novels with elements where the reader needs to suspend disbelief, including magical realism, fantasy, science fiction, the paranormal, timeslip (in which a character moves between time periods) time travel novels and books with ‘ghostly’ elements.
  • The Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller Award: For stories featuring a substantial thriller, suspense, mystery or crime story, alongside or fully entwined with a romantic story. The romantic element should still be very strong throughout but the main storyline may be less of a traditional love story.  Novels set in any time period can be entered for this category.
  • The Romantic Saga Award: For novels predominantly set in the past (pre 1970), usually featuring characters overcoming social pressures or hardships alongside or fully entwined with a romantic story thread. These may be part of a series but must be able to stand alone for readers who won’t have read the ones that went before.
  • The Libertá Books Shorter Romantic Novel Award: For shorter romantic novels, serials or novellas. These may range from magazine serials, short stories of no less than 30,000 words to shorter novels of no more than 70,000 words approximately. Entries may represent any aspect of the romantic genre and can be set in any time period.
  • The Katie Fforde Debut Romantic Novel Award: For the best romantic novel by a first-time author. Entries may represent any aspect of the romantic genre. This is an excellent category for new writers or unestablished to shine amongst their peers.
  • *New Category: The Christmas/Festive Holiday Romantic Novel Award: For the best romantic novel set in the winter festive season featuring Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Yule/New Year etc.