Romance Writers of America Records

The Romance Writers of America (RWA) was founded in 1980 by a small group of writers to raise and maintain a national level of high-quality romance writing in all genres; to strive to stimulate interest as well as an appreciation for the art of writing and to act as a central dissemination point for information concerning activities in the field of romance writing. The organization would also provide needed support and affiliation for published and unpublished romance writers everywhere. This group of authors felt the need to establish such a group since writers' conferences ignored the unique needs of romance authors and the publishing industry did not even consider romance writing to be a true literary genre.

Vivian Stephens, the founder of RWA, was an associate editor of Dell Candlelight Romances in 1979. She presented a workshop at the Southwestern Writers' Conference at the University of Houston on writing formula novels which eventually resulted in the formation of the organization. Her presentation sparked many of the attending writers to contact her about writing romance novels. Five women, Rita Clay Estrada, Parris Afton Bonds, Peggy Cleaves, Rita Gallagher and Sondra Stanford, who were all published authors, asked Vivian to help them form a romance writers' group. It was through their contact with Vivian Stephens and her editor-in-chief at Dell, that the first meeting of RWA was held in Houston, Texas on December 15, 1980. At this meeting, Rita Clay Estrada was elected RWA's first president. The first annual national conference of RWA was held the following year, 1981, also in Houston, Texas.

Today, RWA is the world's largest non-profit genre organization specializing in romance fiction. It has a membership of more than 9,000 members worldwide and more than 140 chapters in the U.S., Canada and Australia. Members include writers, editors, agents and other industry professionals. RWA is also a staunch supporter of literacy having raised nearly $410,000 for national and local literacy programs in the U.S. and Canada.