CONNIE MAY FOWLER is an award-winning novelist, memoirist, screenwriter, essayist, poet, and teacher. The author of eight books—six critically praised novels and two memoirs—her novels include How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, Sugar Cage, River of Hidden Dreams, The Problem with Murmur Lee, Remembering Blue—recipient of the Chautauqua South Literary Award—and Before Women had Wings—recipient of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Buck Award from the League of American Pen Women. Three of her novels have been Dublin International Literary Award nominees. Connie adapted Before Women had Wings for Oprah Winfrey. The result was an Emmy-winning film starring Ms. Winfrey and Ellen Barkin. Her first memoir, When Katie Wakes, explores her descent and escape from an abusive relationship. A Million Fragile Bones details her experience during the Gulf oil spill and explores the close ties between place, spirituality, family, and environmental devastation.

Her work has been translated into 18 languages and is published worldwide. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, London Times, International Herald Tribune, Japan Times, The Sun Magazine, Oxford American, BestLife, and elsewhere. For two years she wrote “Savoring Florida,” a culinary and culture column for FORUM, a publication of the Florida Humanities Council.

In 2007, Connie performed in New York City at The Player’s Club with actresses Kathleen Chalfont, Penny Fuller, and others in an adaptation based on The Other Woman, an anthology that contains her essay “The Uterine Blues.” In 2003, Connie performed in The Vagina Monologues alongside Jane Fonda and Rosie Perez in a production that raised over $100,000 for charity.

Domestic violence shelters and family violence organizations have honored her with numerous awards. Throughout the 1990s she directed the Connie May Fowler Women with Wings Foundation, an organization that was dedicated to aiding women and children in need. In 2009, she received the first annual Peace, Love, and Understanding Award from WMNF Community Radio.

Connie is founder and director of InkBlossom, A Global Community of Writers. InkBlossom hosts online and in-person conferences, retreats, and workshops. Developmental editing, whole novel incubators, and more are offered under the InkBlossom banner.

In keeping with her need to create something, anything, Connie recently opened a jewelry design studio, Coco May Studios. Necklaces, bangles, bracelets, brooches, bookmarks: Check it out!

Connie is Professor Emeritus at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

In addition to writing, teaching, and creating jewelry, Connie is an avid cook, birdwatcher, baker, and consumer of foreign films and TV shows (she is slightly addicted to Acorn and BritBox).

She and her husband Bill, after residing for nearly a decade in the Yucatan, found a cozy spot in a Florida jungle where they live with their brood of rescue animals—three dogs and a cat.

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"We think our palette is words and paper, but it's not. It's the sensations and memories that reside in the dark vaults of our hearts."~~Connie May Fowler

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Connie May Fowler and Other Tall Tales

Connie’s Substack contains a growing collection of fascintating reads, writing tips and prompts, readings (check out Bedtime Stories with Connie May Fowler!), and more. In the coming months, she’ll also post author interviews.