Vivian Stephens

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 Vivian Lorraine Stephens is an American editor of romance novels, literary agent, and founder of Romance Writers of America (RWA). While at Dell Publishing, she created and was the editor of Candlelight Ecstasy, a romance line that revolutionized the genre in the 1980s. In 1980, as part of the Candlelight Romance line, she published Entwined Destinies by Rosalind Welles, the first category romance novel by an African American author to feature African American main characters. "A Black editor in a predominantly white industry, Stephens sought to incorporate the voices of women of color into the burgeoning romance industry. "Over the course of her career, Stephens helped launch Sandra Kitt, Jayne Ann Krentz, and Beverly Jenkins, among others.

Vivian Stephens is credited as the founder of the Romance Writers of America. A group of romance writers approached Stephens after the Southwestern Writers Conference in 1979, looking for advice on dealing with editors and publishers as they tried to break into the business. Stephens told them to form their own conference and offered to provide advice during the process. Vivian Stephens was present for the group's first meeting, at the San Jacinto Savings and Loan in Houston on December 15, 1980, where they selected a founding Board of Directors and began the process of planning their first conference. Stephens secured financial backing from Dell and invited other editors to their first conference in 1981.