Can We Talk Literary Award Ceremonies?
By Jan O'Hara | October 18, 2010 |
One highlight of RWA Nationals is the RITA award ceremony. It’s pretty dazzling, with an MC, coordinated soundtrack, and large screens which display cover art and author photos between acceptance speeches. It’s the closest I’ll get to the Academy-Award experience in my life, and the two I’ve been to now gave me goosebumps. The audience is glammed-up, the winners jubuliant and grateful. One can’t help but leave inspired and warmed. (And few pounds heavier from the decadent chocolate dessert.)
But I don’t think the tears had dried on the podium this year before certain tweets began to fly. I’ll be blunt in that they bothered me, so while this isn’t the post I referred to last month when I swore to zip my lips, you might be tempted to think so. Just do me a favor and if you feel yourself beginning to foam, read to the end of the post first. ;)
I’m not going to quote the specific tweets for several reasons:
- I’m not out to vilify anyone but wish to begin a discussion.
- Even if I wanted to point fingers at specific individuals, that would be difficult. The tweets were echoed by many others, and from the rustling and murmurs during certain parts of the evening, I suspect the audience was sympathetic. In other words, as with many things, I’m probably the person out of step with the times.
These were the essential talking points:
- During award ceremonies, one should not apologize to their partner for the unwashed dishes or unprepared meals that were a consequence of writing deadlines.
- Men would never do such a thing.
- By doing so, you indicate you’re not serious about writing.
Now, I think I detect undernotes of shame in that content — the idea that work attributed in the past to women is “less than” and therefore not fit for public discussion — but to be fair, tone can be hard to grasp on the Internet, particularly in a medium of 140 characters. Also, I know some tweeters by their professional reputation, and I doubt very much that’s what they meant to say. So let’s set that aside to look at the accuracy of these points, and then their broader implications:
1. The Male Model of Success Around (Writing) Work is Best
Do we agree with this? Do men even agree with this? My take: while women have very real challenges in the workplace, so do men — especially those who wish to be a good spouse/parent/human as priority, yet still be perceived as hard-working, competent and hungry. If women encounter a glass ceiling in the corporate world, I say that men encounter a linoleum floor. (Or ceramic tile, depending upon their socio-economic status.)
Rather than get into a “which sex has it worst?” argument, can we agree that rigid gender roles serve nobody, whether in the workplace or at home?
Also, these are RITA and Golden Heart winners; when we look to models of success within the romance world, surely they are the wayshowers?
2. That Men Wouldn’t Behave in This Manner
I don’t find the following scenarios improbable. Do you?
- A NASCAR driver in front of the microphones: “…and a big thumbs up to the wife, who had to change her own tires when I was winning in Fontana last month. Love you, hon.”
- At the Edgars, a male writer brandishing his thriller which features a gutsy female detective: “And to my partner, who had to handle a home invasion and robbery — alone — while I was in Europe promoting this novel.”
As I see it, the romance award recipients aren’t grovelling but acknowledging irony. Even at the podium they’re thinking of story. They’re thinking as writers.
3. Lastly, that care of family can and should be divested from care of the writing career
RITA award winners make their money by writing with conviction about two becoming one, oftentimes in hearth-and-home settings. I’d suggest that by honoring whatever makes their relationship strong — and surely they are the best judges of what that takes — they honor their calling. Taking care of their relationship is taking care of business. If you don’t believe me, talk to an author who’s attempting to write a romance while getting divorced.
This is part of their integrity. Don’t mess with their integrity.
In the final analysis, though, I’m not certain there were any big socio-political ramifications to the tweets. I think people were just bored by evening’s end and blowing off steam; with that, I share a certain sympathy…which is why I’m getting a headstart on my RITA speech. You won’t be catching me unprepared. (Though I promise to keep the multi-media presentation to less than two minutes.)
And because this post ran long, I’ve posted the lyrics to the songs I plan to sing on my website. Poignant version here, silly version here.
But a few questions: It seems to me that the requirements of author-as-public-figure grow every day. Are industry awards an example of this, even if untelevised? Do you feel the ceremonies should cater to audience, award recipient, or both? If you are lucky enough to ever be on stage, who will you thank? Lastly, want to audition for my chorus line?
A USA Today bestselling author, former family physician and academic, Jan O’Hara (she/her) left the world of medicine behind to follow her dreams of becoming a writer. She writes love stories that zoom from wackadoodle to heartfelt in six seconds flat: (Opposite of Frozen; Cold and Hottie; Desperate Times, Desperate Pleasures). Her latest Christmas novella, The Cowboy’s Comeback Christmas, is part of a 9-author-strong anthology (A Cowboy This Christmas: A Sweet Romance Anthology). She also contributed to Author in Progress, a Writer’s Digest Book edited by Therese Walsh.
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Maybe I’ll stick with the line spoken by Yogi Berra when they honored him at Yankee Stadium: “I’d like to thank everyone who made this day necessary.”
I wasn’t able to attend RWA this year, nor did I follow the Tweets (but if I had, I’d probably have skimmed to find winners, not speeches.) I gave up watching award shows long ago (probably when I gave up most television and movie watching), but I remember the long, drawn-out thank-yous as being totally boring. Then again, when I’m putting together the acknowledgments for my books, I do think it’s only fair to thank those who’ve offered assistance, which often means public recognition for the hubster who still seems to think that wandering around the house or staring out the window ISN’T part of the writing process.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
Great post, Jan! I didn’t attend the conference, but I was thrilled to be able to follow it “live” on Twitter. I remember reading the comment when it was tweeted, and thinking, “Mmm, interesting point”.
I think there’s a fair amount of guilt involved for writers since there is no guarantee that all the work will produce income — so I attributed the “thanks to the family” speeches as part of that guilt rising to the surface. :)
I try to take any email, tweet, etc. in the best possible light – even if it’s not meant that way. Makes my life less full of angst!
But I agree, Jan. I think we as women harrange the men to evolve, and we should take a bit of our own advice. I’ve seen this in the business world also, sometimes we can revert to Junior High, when we’d just discovered our claws, but weren’t sure of their proper use, yet.
A bit of sour grapes perhaps?
Who knows what’s going through these women tweeters’ minds? They’re probably 1) bored, 2) jealous. Incidentally, tweeting during someone’s speech is such bad taste. Seriously. And this is the thing about feminism: Isn’t the first step supporting your fellows rather than clawing at them from a distance?
And now, the most important part: I will totally audition for your chorus line, Jan. :)
As preamble: I don’t think you’ll find a more committed proponent of women’s rights and gender equality than me (I like that better than ‘rabid feminist’ :))but I would guess at these events writers are not experienced at leaping on stage and churning out a perfect speech. They stumble, they blurt, and things get a little jumbled. Perhaps they do feel guilty. Perhaps their husbands have sacrificed a good deal to give their wives time to write, including (but not limited to) taking care of housework and dishes after coming home from a day of outside work. I would suggest that plenty of evolved men would do the same in their speeches – I know my husband would.
If a writer receives support in their writing/home environment, kudos to the supporter. It’s often hard for the non-writer to understand how this can constitute ‘work’ but they take it on faith. They don’t know, during the long months and possibly years, whether this endeavour will ever amount to anything, be published, product income or garner awards, and still they give the space, the time and the commitment. I believe that should be recognized. And if the form the recognition takes isn’t quite politically correct I’m not going to take offence.
Was that the question? :)
I personally had no problem with the speeches. How many times at the Academy Awards do the recipients thank their wives, family, God? Because behind most successful people IS someone else helping along. My husband has a successful business that I barely take part in. Yet I feel I had in it being a success. Why? Because it’s me taking care of house and family which allows him to concentrate on business. That’s not ego on my part, it’s the truth. If he had to do it alone, he’d have much less time to devote to work. It’s as simple as that.
During many speeches I had a tear in my eye, it was lovely to see the devotion that some of these women had for their men, and vice versa. I truly believe the majority in the audience were happy for the winners and didn’t begrudge them the speech.
In a business, and a genre, that seems to have so little appreciation and respect sometimes, I love the splash and pomp of the Ritas and those who don’t need not attend.
Fascinating. I do notice, however, that often when the woman is a secondary as opposed to primary bread winner (or is not winning any bread at all), she takes upon herself the burden of assuming that household and family responsibilities are, first and foremost, hers.
Wow, that was a long, redundant post, wasn’t it? Sorry about that!
And I thought my little :) would turn into smilies, but apparently not.
And lastly, kudos to you, Jan, for addressing the thorny issues that bother you and inviting comments.
I think authors are mostly celebrities within our own writing world. Other than a few obvious exceptions — Rowling, Meyer, Brown, King — no one cares what authors do outside of writing their books. It’s hard to remember that sometimes, when we’re all cozied up in our little blogosphere, but really, ask non-writers if they care about author-celebrities. I’m guessing a majority don’t.
(Even the name Jonathan Franzen means NOTHING to most people. No joke.)
So. Is there more responsibility on author-celebrities? I think WE think there is, and that can be both good and bad. In this day and age, it’s always important to think about what we say and how we behave.
But ultimately I think you’re right, the comments were meant as harmless quips, and they’re definitely not indicative of anyone’s true feelings/attitudes about their writing.
So hopefully this little incident won’t discourage authors from thanking their families (jokingly or otherwise) and won’t stop us from recognizing/celebrating high achievers in our writing world.
First, I guess it’s a southern thing, but I loved the NASCAR example. You made me chortle my tea. ;-)
Next up, I don’t think we need to get too worked up over acceptance speeches and gender differences. I think each writer wanted to find a nice way to acknowledge the sacrifices her spouse made without burrowing into any deep and possibly embarrassing details.
My poor family has suffered some serious neglect over the last few weeks while I finished my edits, and I would be callous not to find some nice way to acknowledge their huge contribution in easing my workload. However, I don’t think I have anything to worry about in terms of acceptance speeches.
I think Deborah hit it right on the head in her comment.
As always, Jan, great post! ;-)
A chorus line audition? I am so there.
I’ve always had mixed feelings about thanking people at awards ceremonies. You can’t possibly thank *everyone*, so I’d feel bad about leaving someone out. I’d probably just come up with some bogus speech that is obviously meant to be ridiculous. That way, at least the audience gets a good laugh. I would thank people in person later and make it more meaningful.
I promise, should I ever win the Rita, that my speech will include the line:
‘You love me! You really love me!” (note tears in eyes)
Richard, that seems very safe. I guess you don’t want to show off your singing voice? ;)
Terry, our poor spouses. On the other hand, maybe it’s for the best they don’t understand everything that can be required to write.
Donna, maybe that’s how the tweeters thought of the thanks — springing from guilt rather than genuine emotion. Perhaps they were trying to empower the authors. That’s a good point!
Laura, I love your underlying hopeful philosophy. Thank you for that!
Rima, if you want a spot in my hypothetical set-up, you’ve got one, LOL. Let’s try to get Anne Stuart on board, too. I think she’d be a hoot.
Deborah, our partners do step out in faith with us. At least mine does. And whatever success he’s had in life he shares or even attributes to me. Personally, I couldn’t not reciprocate. But that’s me and my values, and others are entitled to feel differently.
Michelle, I’m a sap, LOL, but it sounds like we had similar experiences during the ceremony. Glad you enjoyed it.
Sharon, ah, yes, that’s a whole other subject, isn’t it? Hee. Don’t think I have the courage or desire to touch that one today.
Kristan, your point about this being an insular world is so true! In the end, your last paragraph is my wish, too.
Teresa, I wouldn’t be ruling out the speech-making requirements yet… (I’m just sayin’.)
Lydia, that sounds like an excellent strategy. For some people, private thanks would be seen as more meaningful, anyway.
thea, :D
I appreciate the conversation, all!
Great post, Jan!
I too was at the Rita’s this year, and yes, it is very academy awards-like, which I love! More than one speech had me waving my program in front of my face and of course, as a newly published author, I had visions of myself up there one day…ah…
Although I was unaware of the particular tweet you addressed in your post, I was very aware of something else – the sheer volume of people on their cell phones during the ceremony – the multitude of people actively tweeting and/or texting. I attended the Rita’s in 2009 as well and there was no comparison. In one short year we’ve become twext addicted. Now I’m not going to judge, because I’m such a sheep that at one point druing the ceremonies I pulled out my own phone because I was desperate to feel hip and fit in. However, my phone is so old and decrepit, by the time it finally turned on, the ceremony was over.
My take on it? Do you remember how you used to listen to that obscure indie band who suddenly hit it big and you boasted to your friends that you listened to them way back when they recorded their very first album – before anyone knew them? It’s kind of like that (or not). Everyone wants to be the first to announce to the world what’s going on. Tweeting has become the new way to satisfy that strange urge in humanity to want to say/see/do things first.
Does that mean texting and tweeting is tasteful during an awards ceremony like the Rita’s? I don’t think so, but then, maybe I’m old-fashioned. My phone is basically used for emergencies (where is it, anyway?) and I’m sure if I was up on that stage, I’d have apologized to my husband for an unkempt house as well.
Now, where do I audition for that chorus line?
DL, I was oblivious to all the texting going on during the ceremony, but I’m not surprised. And how interesting you’ve noticed such a change in one year. (Wouldn’t that make an interesting anthropological study: photos of the audience as viewed from the stage, year by year?) A good number of those people might have been reporting as part of their job, but our standards of what constitutes “polite” have surely changed.
~Jan, who owns an iPhone and has been guilty as charged, even though she’s most definitely old-fashioned.
I don’t know about anyone else, but being a mother/wife/unpublished writer can carry with it a lot of unneccessary guilt.
Maybe the tweets were unkind and unproductive criticism, but they might have been making another point: women don’t need to apologize for making art.
It reminded me a tiny bit of Pearl Buck at the dinner where she accepted the Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth. She got up to give a short speech, in which she quoted an ancient Chinese opinion that the novel is a ‘lesser’ form of literature. She sat down again and at her side was Sinclair Lewis who told her in no uncertain terms never to apologize for writing ‘just’ novels. That they are valuable, that she deserved the recognition, etc. And she was grateful to hear it.
I will dedicate my first published novel to my husband, but I won’t apologize to him. In the long run his (and our children’s) lives will be better for having a wife/mother who’s reaching for and fulfilling her potential.
That was a really good post, Jan, and sensitively written.
Allison_I, in private I’ve had quite a few people speak about the guilt which, to be honest, I shed a while back because I heartily believe your last point.
Your interpretation fits what I know of the tweeters as well. Thanks for the kind words and the hopeful explanation!
Jan- I think you’ve got a really great point–that we all maybe need to just take it as it comes and not try to politicize.
I wonder though, how much of this tone from Tweeters has to so with men’s higher rate of reviews, better pay, higher probability of publishing and such. There IS gender stuff going on (though it could fill several blogs to cover and i think boils down to READER bias), but it sounds like maybe that fed into the tone.
Hart, I wondered about the wisdom of doing this post, but I’m so glad I persisted. If the tweeters were feeling pinched by gender roles, it makes sense their comments would be motivated out of fear and/or frustration.
Thanks to you and everyone else for contributing to a great discussion!
Jan, I never saw the tweet in question, but I can totally imagine the content, both from your post and from the comments here. I do wonder if we’ll ever (as a species) manage to outgrow the tendency to jump on our own gender when the nerves get hit. (er, that applies to the tweet-er, not your post here, of course) Of your three points summarizing the tweets, the one that really gets me is the last – that by having a supportive partner and making time for writing part of the priority string, that somehow equates to ‘unserious writer’. Heck, I plan to keep my day job even if I get mega-published some day, because it’s important in a different way than writing. Serious writer != alcoholic man hunched over typewriter. ’nuff said, on that front – but you also make a great point about the type of partner who enables one to write a great romance.
I, on the other hand, prefer to leave my H’s wonderfulness uncelebrated, and instead immortalize the weirdos I met before him. ;)
Becky, except in certain contexts, the reflex of jumping-on people is seldom fun or productive. I think the “serious” label, too, is one often used to divide. (It’s probably obvious I’m not a fan of labels.)
As for your very last sentence? Mwahaha. You’re my kind of people. ;) Thanks for commenting.
Jan, it’s disturbing people would actually question someone’s seriousness about writing. Anyone who tries to write and learn and read to improve is serious. Not that you have to be overly serious-what a drag that would be if we all sat around solemnly discussing our art. *not good at solemn*
Dee, how did you manage to have both the heart of a teacher and a kid? I think the labels are an effort to distinguish between those who aim to write to support themselves, and those who do not — probably important to editors and agents who’ll count on their efforts. Problem is – and I saw this in medicine – that you can never *quite* tell who will catch fire internally when they try something for fun, nor who the public will embrace. So yeah, another place where generalizations can fail.
/serious Jan. On with the fun!
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