Romance Writers of America goes bankrupt following racism allegations

The Romance Writers of America filed for bankruptcy protection this week after several years of infighting and racism allegations that fractured the organization, causing many of its members to flee.

The Texas-based trade association, which bills itself as the voice of romance writers, has lost about 80 percent of its members in the past five years because of the unrest. Now reduced to just 2,000 members, it cannot cover the costs it has committed to paying for its writers' conferences in Texas and Pennsylvania, the group said in court papers filed Wednesday in Houston.

Mary Ann Jock, president of the group and author of seven published romance novels, said in a court filing that the problems stemmed “primarily from conflicts over diversity, equity and inclusion” among former board members. administration and other members of the fiction writing community.

The organization, founded in 1980 to represent and promote writers of the best-selling fiction genre, said it owes nearly $3 million to the hotels where it plans to host its annual meetings. In court filings, Jock noted how the organization held its 2024 conference in Austin, Texas, and was working to repay the contract owed to the local Marriott property where the event was taking place. At the same time, the Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, where the organization was planning its 2025 conference, demanded full payment of $1 million, Jock said.

The association was pushed into bankruptcy “in light of the Philadelphia Marriott's demand for immediate payment and without a consensual resolution with the Marriott Conference Centers,” Jock said.

In court documents, the association listed between $100,000 and $500,000 in assets and between $1 million and $10 million in liabilities.

Relations within the group began to deteriorate in 2019, over the way it treated one of its authors, a Chinese-American writer who it claimed had violated the group's code with negative comments in online about other writers and their work. The association reversed its decision, but the outcry led to the resignation of its president and several members of the board of directors. The organization had around 10,000 members at the time,

Following allegations that it lacked diversity and was predominantly white, the organization canceled its annual awards in 2020. Several publishers, including Harlequin, Avon Books and Berkeley Romance, then withdrew from the annual conference. The association later announced that it would present a new award in honor of Vivian Stephens, a pioneering black romance novelist and editor.

The following year, the association faced more anger and eventually withdrew an award for a novel widely criticized for its sympathetic portrayal of a cavalry officer who participated in the massacre of Lakota Indians at the Battle of Wounded Knee.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.