Connie May Fowler is an acclaimed American novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter, and poet. Her semi-autobiographical novel, Before Women Had Wings, received both the 1996 Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Buck Award from the League of American Pen Women. Notably, she adapted this novel for Oprah Winfrey, resulting in an Emmy-winning film starring Winfrey, Ellen Barkin, Julia Stiles, and Tina Majorino.

Her novel Remembering Blue earned the Chautauqua South Literary Award, and three of her novels have been nominated for the Dublin International Literary Award. Other notable works include Sugar Cage, River of Hidden Dreams, and The Problem with Murmur Lee, which was also Redbook's premier book club selection. Her memoir, When Katie Wakes, delves into the generational cycle of domestic violence in her family.

Published in 2010, How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly is often compared to Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway in its structure. Her latest memoir, A Million Fragile Bones (published April 2017), reflects on her experiences living on an isolated barrier island and the devastating effects of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill.

Fowler's essays, addressing themes like family history, environment, and personal relationships, have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times and The Sun Magazine. She has also performed in various theatrical productions, including The Vagina Monologues and The Other Woman.

Her work, characterized as southern fiction with a post-modern sensibility, melds magical realism with the harsh realities of poverty and focuses on working-class people from diverse racial backgrounds. She is considered part of the "fourth generation" of American writers, exploring themes of race, segregation, and interpersonal relationships.

Fowler has served as a bartender, caterer, nurse, television producer, TV show host, antique dealer, and construction worker. From 1997 to 2003, she directed the Connie May Fowler Women Wings Foundation, supporting at-risk women and children, and was an Irving Bacheller Professor of Creative Writing at Rollins College.

Fowler splits her time between Florida, the Yucatan, and Vermont. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Tampa and a Master of Arts from the University of Kansas.